9 Innovations from Visa Europe

November 6, 2015 10:50 AM

A customer uses a Lloyds Bank Visa Inc. debit card to make a contactless payment on a Verifone Systems Inc. payment device in London, U.K., on Friday, May 22, 2015. Credit and debit cards that can be used by tapping the reader are gaining users, and mobile apps are set to further boost the popularity of contactless paying. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

With Visa Inc. set to merge with Visa Europe, the U.S. company stands to benefit from the experience its London-based counterpart has in mobile and digital payments. It could also supercharge these projects with added resources.

Wolfe, Daniel

London Collab

The Visa Europe Collab opened in early 2015 as a space for startups to collaborate with payments industry insiders. The project's founder likened it to a "Visa Apple Store."

Fashion Forward

Visa Europe is working with Central Saint Martins College to design wearable payment devices that put fashion above function. The "small change" smartwatch payment concept (pictured) and other ideas came from people whose background is in design, not technology.

Immediate Payments

The Visa Personal Payments service in Europe got an Immediate Payments upgrade in 2013, enabling users to send funds to one another in minutes. The feature was meant as one of the building blocks of a cross-border person-to-person payments system.

An employee displays the interface for the Visa payWave contactless payment system using a Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The Mobile World Congress, where 1,500 exhibitors converge to discuss the future of wireless communication, is a global showcase for the mobile technology industry and runs from Feb. 25 through Feb. 28. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Mobile Wallet Maker

Visa Europe has been involved in several major European mobile wallets including the Vodafone Wallet and La Caixa's project in Spain.

People making a mobile payment at a restaurant - new technology concepts

Reevaluating Risk

As mobile payments spread, Visa Europe began reexamining the logic behind categorizing them as card-not-present transactions. In many cases, the card isn't present for the purchase but the cardholder is.

Tokenization

Visa Europe has followed Visa Inc.'s example in promoting tokenization as a fundamental element of the mobile wallets it supports. Visa Europe unveiled its tokenization plans in February of 2015, just a few months ahead of Apple Pay's launch in the U.K.

Zapp - App photo shoot

Nathan Dainty

Sibling Rivalry

Visa Europe has enjoyed a healthy rivalry with VocaLink, an organization owned by many of the same banks that own the card network. With the launch of its Zapp payment system (pictured), VocaLink has openly declared itself to be a rival to Visa and MasterCard.

Pedestrians pass beneath adverts for Visa Inc. at Westfield Stratford City mall, operated by Westfield Group, next to the Olympic Park in London, U.K., on Wednesday, July 25, 2012. Surface-rail links to Stratford in east London, where the main Olympic stadium is located, were affected yesterday as rising temperatures caused rails to expand, prompting Network Rail Ltd. to impose speed restrictions. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Olympian Feat

When the Olympics came to London in 2012, Visa Inc. and Visa Europe turned the city into a proving ground for mobile payments. Samsung provided the handsets for a Visa-branded mobile wallet that could work at the 3,000 contactless payment terminals in operation throughout Olympic Games venues.

Wolfe, Daniel

Expanding Visa Checkout

When Visa Inc. changed its V.me online payment service to Visa Checkout, Visa Europe didn't follow right away. But in announcing the companies' reunification, Visa Inc. CEO Charlie Scharf indicated that the two Visas are already working on expanding Visa Checkout to Europe.

Mobile payments

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