Visa pitches 'digital wallet'
Visa is launching a centralized electronic payment system designed to makeonline shopping as easy as pulling out a wallet.
"What that comes with is a place for customers to be able to centralize their credit, debit and pre-paid card information in a single secure location," said Mike Bradley, head of products for Visa Canada.
A customer could add any card they choose to the wallet, including competing cards such as MasterCard or American Express, Bradley said.
Unlike an old-fashionedwallet, Visa's system won't hold identification such as driver's licences or health cards or photos of your loved ones it's not much more than acentral customer account stored in Visa's network that contains information about the customer's payment card accounts.
Merchants can sign up to link into an electronic system through theirwebsiteso they canaccept payment from the wallet. Bradley would not say what kind of fees would be involved for merchants, consumers or the institutions that issue cards placed in the wallet.
If the merchant accepts both the digital wallet and the payment card that the customer wishes to use, the customer enters an email address or username and a password to pay. There is no need to enter a billing address and payment information.
Extra authentication for big buys
However, Bradley said higher levels of authentication may be needed for big purchases like a stereo system.
For now, Visa's system targets online shopping and games, but Visa eventually hopes to link the digital wallet to a chip in a cellphone that would allow consumers to pay by tapping the phone near a receiver inbricks-and-mortar stores.
So far, in Canada, Visa has partnered with Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank and TD Bank financial institutions that already issue Visa cards to launch the system.
Visa is promising that the wallet will be well-protected by security and users won't be accountable for fraud involving Visa products.
However, Bradley would not specifywhat would happen if a user has their password stolen and a non-Visa card in their account is used to commit fraud.
Catherine Johnston, president and CEO of the Advanced Card Technologies Canada, the payment card industry association, said her members feel there is clearly a need for a solution that lets people carry a number of payment cards securely on a mobile device like a cellphone.
She suggested that in the future, consumers might end upputting multiple apps similar to Visa's digital wallet on a single mobile device.
"I imagine we could see multiple wallets in the way that today we see multiple cards," she said.