Visa has introduced a range of new digital-first products and services aimed at transforming the card industry to meet the evolving needs of businesses, merchants, consumers, and the financial institutions that support them.
Scheduled for rollout over the coming year, this new product roadmap was revealed at the Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco. Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Visa, stated, “The industry is at a pivotal point—new technologies like Gen AI are rapidly shifting how we shop and handle our finances. We’re unveiling the next generation of truly digital-native payment card experiences. Today, we introduced new card features and digital innovations to provide consumers with a more customized, convenient, and secure future.”
Among the new offerings is Visa Flexible Credentials, which allows users to switch between different payment methods on a single card. This enables consumers to set parameters for using debit, credit, buy now, pay later options, or rewards points. Visa Flexible Credentials are already operational in Asia and will launch with Affirm in the U.S. later this summer.
Visa is also rolling out several enhanced capabilities for mobile device users, including:
- Tap to Confirm: Authenticates identity for online shopping.
- Tap to Add Card: Increases security when adding a card to a wallet or app.
- Tap to P2P (person-to-person): Facilitates money transfers between friends and family.
To enhance security and protect user identities, Visa is introducing a Payment Passkey service that replaces traditional passwords. This service confirms a consumer’s identity and authorizes online payments through biometric scans, such as facial recognition or fingerprints. By using passkeys during online shopping, Visa aims to streamline and secure transactions across devices and websites globally.
As part of its first deployment, Visa will integrate Passkeys with its online checkout service, Click to Pay, collaborating with issuers to enable this feature on new Visa cards.
Additionally, Visa is entering the account-to-account payment space with Pay By Bank, employing technology from its Swedish acquisition, Tink. Available across Europe and recently launched in the U.S., this service incorporates real-time fraud detection to ensure safe transactions. In Latin America and during a pilot phase in the UK, Visa’s Protect for A2A Payments product has already identified 60% of real-time payments fraud that financial institutions previously overlooked.
Lastly, Visa is set to deploy ‘data tokens’ allowing consumers to consent to the sharing of their data while shopping online. Consumers can track where their data has been shared and revoke access directly through their banking app. These data tokens enable merchants to request consent for personalized offers, backed by AI-generated insights from the consumer’s transaction history. This allows for real-time recommendations tailored to shoppers while providing transparency and control over their data privacy.