Visa to upgrade issuers’ card-on-file tools for IoT

Visa has announced plans to enhance its Visa Token Service with new services to control how tokenized card information is stored on file for third-party use cases like the Internet of Things, with the tools launching next year in the U.S. and Australia.

Two new services in development include the Visa Network Hub Provisioning feature and the Visa Card-on-File API, Visa said in a May 4 press release.

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Issuers using the provisioning feature will have one integration point to connect to VTS token requestors, enabling consumers to handle merchants' requests for a digital version of their Visa card through the issuer's mobile banking app or online banking channel, without having to provide card details to each IoT provider, Visa said in the release.

By combining the provisioning feature with consumer transaction controls, issuers may also enable consumers to directly authorize payments to third parties without providing the physical card or full account details. Examples listed include giving restricted card access to another user, authorizing a payment to a merchant with card details already on file, an e-commerce enabler or an IoT provider.