SINGAPORE, Dec. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Visa announced the launch of the first Visa Token Service in Asia Pacific with United Overseas Bank (UOB) the first bank to implement. The Visa Token Service is a new security technology that replaces sensitive payment account information found on payment cards, such as the 16-digit account number, expiration date and security code, with a unique digital identifier or "tokens" that can be used to process payments without exposing actual account details.
Visa cards that are tokenised are also domain controlled, meaning the tokenised card is linked to a consumer's phone or wallet application and is validated in real-time by VisaNet, Visa's global payment processing platform. Visa works in concert with financial institutions, technology platform providers and device manufacturers to incorporate new and advanced identification methods to further protect consumers including device identification, biometric authentication, and other capabilities.
Tokenisation was first introduced as a new global standard in October 2013 by Visa and other payment schemes to enhance security and simplify consumers' purchasing experience.
T.S. Anil, Head of Product for Asia Pacific for Visa said, "We live in a connected world and with the rise of digitisation, it is important the payments industry is focused on delivering a safe, secure, simple, and consistent consumer purchasing experience. The Visa Token Service can help prevent fraud by offering financial institutions, merchants, and third party payment providers, such as digital wallet providers, a secure way to enable mobile and online payments without sharing sensitive account information."
United Overseas Bank has implemented the Visa Token Service as part of its digital wallet UOB Mighty. The service allows its Visa credit or debit cardholders to make contactless payments with an NFC-enabled Android smartphone simply by launching the UOB Mighty app, selecting the "Pay" function, entering a PIN and tapping to pay at all NFC-enabled terminals in Singapore and overseas.
"Consumers are increasingly attached to their smartphones which have become an indispensable lifestyle device. With the Visa Token Service, UOB is able to offer Singapore customers the option of making contactless payments, with tokenised security, through their smartphones at the point of sale - whether it is in a supermarket, coffee shop or at a petrol station," said Mr Dennis Khoo, Head of Personal Financial Services, Singapore, UOB.
"We are proud to partner with UOB to bring the Visa Token Service to their mobile banking app. As the market leader, Visa will continue to innovate and set the standards in payments, and the Visa Token Service is part of an overall digital payments strategy. We intend to roll out the Visa Token Service to additional markets across Asia Pacific over the coming months," added T. S. Anil.
Key benefits of Visa Token Service:
About Visa
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks -- VisaNet -- that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products.
