NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Visa has formed a unit to promote use of Visa-branded contactless cards and accounts on NFC phones and other devices, seeing an opportunity to expand on the success of open-loop fare collection in London and plans for the move by transit authorities in a growing number of cities, including New York, to accept contactless credit, debit and prepaid bank cards for fares.
The London-based unit, called Visa Global Transit Solutions, will provide consulting and technical assistance from central and regional offices, as well as back-end payment management systems to provide transit operators with a framework for accepting fixed fares and distance- or time-based fares. Mastercard, which is believed to have played a larger role than Visa in helping Transport for London introduce open-loop fare collection in 2012, probably has similar technology.
The Visa transit unit includes expansion of the network’s Visa Ready program to fast-track certification of vendors to offer transit payments technology involving Visa cards and accounts. The first “Visa Ready for Transit” vendors are processor Worldline and fare-collection systems integrator Vix Technology, said Visa.
