Visa announced the launch of the Visa Developer platform, which transforms the biggest retail payments network in the world into an open platform which will drive innovations in commerce and payment solutions.
For the first time in the almost 60-year history of Visa, software developers will be gaining open access to the payments technology, services and products of Visa.
According to a press release, the new Visa Developer platform was created to help merchants, financial institutions and tech companies in meeting the demands of both merchants and consumers who are increasingly relying on connected devices to be able to make transactions. At the platform's launch, it will be offering developers access to some of Visa's most popular payment systems and services, such as person-to-person payment, account holder identification, currency conversion, transaction alerts and secure payment services for in-store and online purchases like Visa Checkout.
The creation of the platform has been a multi-year project that was led by the global product and technology teams of Visa. The teams transformed Visa's products into application programming interfaces, or APIs, which are used by developers to create apps and software.
The Visa Developer platform differentiates itself from other payment solution platforms by offering a developer portal that offers an easy way to search through all the payment products and services of Visa, providing developers access to hundreds of APIs and software development kits for some of the most popular products of Visa, allowing developers to use a testing sandbox, and establishing engagement centers for the Visa Developer platform in markets such as San Francisco, Miami, Singapore, Dubai and Sao Paulo.
"Visa Developer represents not only a new access point to our network, but a new distribution platform for Visa products and services globally," said Visa CEO Charlie Scharf in a statement.
Several tech companies, startups and financial institutions have already participated in beta tests for the Visa Developer platform over the previous months, with the participating firms possibly already having created prototypes for apps that utilize Visa's technology.
Visa has faced numerous challenges in the payments industry with the rise of payment provider rivals such as Braintree and Stripe. The launch of the Visa Developer platform will allow the company to maintain its footing in the payments industry, as it will allow Visa to expand its reach to app developers ranging from startups to tech giants.
