Top 10 News of Visa for 2024

Introduction

For 2024 Visa is changing how we think about digital payments and banking. This blog highlights the top ten news stories from Visa, showing their exciting new projects, like the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform and a partnership with Analytic Partners to help merchants understand their sales better. Visa is also using advanced technology to fight fraud and improve digital wallets, making payments safer and easier for everyone. These updates reflect Visa’s strong focus on innovation and its goal of creating a more connected and secure financial system.

Top 10 News of Visa for 2024

1. Visa Introduces the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform
2. Visa and Analytic Partners Announce Multi-Year Deal to Transform Commercial Analytics for Merchants and Brands
3. Visa to Acquire Featurespace
4. Visa Reinvents the Card, Unveils New Products for Digital Age
5. Visa Announces Generative AI-Powered Fraud Solution to Combat Account Attacks
6. Visa Inc. and J.P. Morgan Payments Forge Strategic Collaboration to Revolutionize Faster Money Movement in the US through Visa Direct
7. Visa Joins AWS Partner Network to Help Simplify Global Digital Payments
8. Visa and Western Union Announce Expanded Collaboration Transforming How Money Travels Cross-Border
9. Visa Expands Its Digital Wallet Capabilities and Availability
10. Visa Reimagines Customer Loyalty with New Web3 Engagement Solution

Visa Introduces the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform

VTAP is a cutting-edge solution developed by Visa’s in-house blockchain experts. The platform is a b2b solution designed to enable banks to bring fiat currencies onchain in a safe, seamless, and efficient manner. Key benefits include:

• Easy integration: VTAP provides a platform for banks to mint, burn and transfer fiat-backed tokens, such as tokenized deposits and stablecoins, and experiment with use cases. This is available in a test environment with plans to support live programs in 2025 and when participating banks are ready to launch with end customers. VTAP requires minimal technical integration, as participating banks can access the complete suite of VTAP services via APIs designed to help enhance existing financial infrastructure to be always on and more efficient.
• Programmability: VTAP is designed to enable banks to use their fiat-backed tokens within smart contracts. This could help digitize and automate existing workflows and power the future exchange of new types of real-world assets. For example, a bank could automate processes like administering complex lines of credit using smart contracts and use fiat-backed tokens to release payments when payment terms are met. A bank could also enable their customers to use a fiat-backed token to purchase tokenized commodities or tokenized treasuries with near-real time settlement onchain.
• Interoperability: There is a growing ecosystem where tokenized real-world assets are being issued across multiple permissioned and public blockchain networks. Visa’s vision is to enable interoperability across different blockchains for banks utilizing the VTAP platform. With a single API connection to VTAP, in the future, banks can enable multiple use cases and interact with partners and clients on both permissioned and public blockchains. To support the broad ecosystem adoption of tokenized assets, Visa is committed to enabling safe and secure cross-chain exchanges of tokenized real world assets using fiat-backed tokens.

Visa and Analytic Partners Announce Multi-Year Deal to Transform Commercial Analytics for Merchants and Brands

Visa a global leader in digital payments, today announced that it has entered into a new strategic partnership with Analytic Partners, a global analytics solution provider. Together, Visa and Analytic Partners plan to address commercial challenges faced by merchants and brands, including improving the return on advertising investments, with value-enhancing AI-driven data analytics.

In a dynamic business environment rich with data, companies need meaningful, near-real-time insights to make informed decisions, yet solutions are often fragmented or not actionable. The partnership will combine Visa’s merchant relationships and consumer spend insights with Analytic Partners’ commercial decisioning platform to bring powerful marketing spend optimization analytics to merchants and brands around the world.

“The volume of data available to merchants can be overwhelming, and if they don’t get it just right, it’s a missed opportunity for growth,” said Jeni Mundy, Global Head of Merchant Sales & Acquiring, Visa. “Bringing together our scale and insights with Analytic Partners’ deep expertise in Commercial Analytics, we’ll enable our clients to achieve greater success in their lines of business. We’re excited to unlock the potential of new enhanced solutions for merchants in the years to come.”

Visa to Acquire Featurespace

Antony Cahill, Global Head of Value-added Services at Visa, said: “Providing our clients with solutions that can adapt to and anticipate the changing threat landscape is of the utmost importance. Featurespace’s strong foundation in AI will enhance our existing product portfolio and enable us to address our clients’ most complex and pressing challenges. We look forward to welcoming the Featurespace team to Visa.”

The combined expertise of Visa and Featurespace will enable clients to manage fraud in real-time and further protect the payments ecosystem using AI-fueled solutions. This investment builds on Visa’s commitment to ecosystem security. In the last five years alone, Visa has invested billions of dollars in technology, including to reduce fraud and enhance network security.

Dave Excell, Founder of Featurespace, added: “Over the past 12 years we have served the financial services industry, building a company that has gone from strength to strength, and we are thrilled to become a part of Visa. With Visa, we can bring the innovation, integrity and purpose of our platform and our team to more payment service providers and ultimately, stop more people from becoming victims of financial crime.”

Visa Reinvents the Card, Unveils New Products for Digital Age

There are six billion mobile devices in the world² providing consumers with a versatile NFC enabled device primed to be “tapped.” At the end of 2023, Visa’s tap to pay penetration reached 65% globally, up two times the penetration we saw in 2019, cementing tap as one of the best commerce experiences today.³

This year, new ways to “tap” on a mobile device will become an integral part of the Visa experience.

• Tap to Pay: Any device can now be a POS device
• Tap to Confirm: Easily authenticates identity when shopping online
• Tap to Add Card: Enhances security when adding card into a wallet or app
• Tap to P2P (person-to-person): Allows money to be sent between family and friends

Visa Announces Generative AI-Powered Fraud Solution to Combat Account Attacks

Thirty three percent of enumerated accounts experienced fraud within five days of a fraudster obtaining access to their payment information². By using generative AI, components to learn normal and abnormal transaction patterns, Visa’s VAAI Score identifies the likelihood of complex enumeration attacks in real-time to help reduce fraud without compromising the integrity of Visa’s performance and accuracy. The tool has been able to reduce the false positive rate by 85% compared to other risk models, as the VAAI Score focuses on specific signals for enumeration allowing for a stronger performance³. VAAI Score can help issuers with:

• Reduced fraud and operational losses: Helps identify complex enumeration attacks in real time which can help reduce follow-on fraud from validated accounts and operational losses due to enumeration such as customer center calls and card reissuance and help safeguard clients.
• Improved cardholder experience: Helps identify when legitimate cardholder transactions are not impacted, while giving issuers a tool to proactively decline transactions at risk for enumeration attacks.
• Real-time transaction scoring: Provides a real-time risk score in 20 milliseconds⁴ which can help clients in identifying enumeration and using it in their authorization decisioning when used with a rules engine.

Visa Inc. and J.P. Morgan Payments Forge Strategic Collaboration to Revolutionize Faster Money Movement in the US through Visa Direct

Yanilsa Gonzalez Ore, Head of Money Movement Solutions, North America for Visa, added: “We are thrilled to be working with J.P. Morgan Payments. Their dedication to excellence and customer-centric approach mirrors our own values. The addition of faster payments across North America for J.P. Morgan Payments customers is a further step in delivering on that promise, providing quicker, more efficient movement of money that benefit businesses, consumers, and the broader economy.”

Visa and J.P. Morgan Payments share a common vision: to create a world where money movement is seamless, secure, and accessible to all. This collaboration represents a significant step toward achieving that vision, and both organizations are committed to driving positive change in the financial ecosystem.

J.P. Morgan Payments combines treasury services, trade, card and merchant services capabilities to help clients pay customers or employees, around the world. They are a global leader, processing more than $10 trillion in payments daily, operating in over 160 countries and over 120 currencies.

Visa Joins AWS Partner Network to Help Simplify Global Digital Payments

By making its services available in AWS, Visa is meeting its clients where they are. One of the first services to be available is Visa Cross-Border Solutions, which assists in streamlining the process of sending and receiving money globally and holding multiple currencies. This strategic positioning will allow Visa’s clients to integrate solutions like Visa Cross-Border Solutions into their business operations – eliminating the need for them to step out of their established platforms.

“Visa is dedicated to better serving our clients in cloud environments, which is why we’re excited to bring Visa Cross-Border Solutions to the AWS Marketplace,” said Vanessa Colella, Global Head of Innovation and Digital Partnerships, Visa. “We aim to make our solutions readily accessible and available for customers to easily integrate across diverse platforms. This is a step further in our broader commitment to reduce challenges for financial institutions and enterprises.” Through AWS, Visa plans to bring more of its products to clients operating in the cloud. Companies wanting to process payments through AWS on VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network, can already establish secure AWS Privatelink connectivity with Visa Cloud Connect.

Cloud-native fintechs, financial institutions, and enterprises have found using cloud services can help accelerate service deployment and customer adoption. It can also contribute to lowering costs associated with local data centers, implementing specialized hardware like physical routers, and payment hardware security modules (HSMs).

Read: Top 10 FinTech Cybersecurity Challenges in 2025

Visa and Western Union Announce Expanded Collaboration Transforming How Money Travels Cross-Border

Western Union and Visa are also developing disbursement programs for humanitarian organizations and governments to support the delivery of critical funds during a disaster. The programs are intended to support emergency and humanitarian payouts, cross-border pension payouts², and domestic benefits and disbursement payouts.

“People rely on remittances to send lifeline payments to their loved ones overseas. When we consider the urgency and need for accessibility, secure payment options with added convenience can make all the difference,” said Chris Newkirk, Global Head of Commercial & Money Movement Solutions, Visa. “Visa’s global scale and Western Union’s digital capabilities are revolutionizing how customers send funds around the world. We are proud to offer more people fast and efficient solutions for cross-border payments.”

“Aspiring populations around the world rely on Western Union to provide them with innovative and accessible financial services that offer flexibility, value and trust,” said Sam Jawad, Head of Ecosystem, at Western Union. “By strengthening our strategic collaboration with Visa, together we will deliver impactful products and services that can help empower our customers to build a life of opportunity for themselves and their loved ones.”

Visa Expands Its Digital Wallet Capabilities and Availability

The innovation enables financial institutions to add virtual corporate cards into an employees’ digital wallet – including third-party wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay – to enhance convenience, security and flexibility for corporate users. It coincides with a significant expansion of Visa Commercial Pay across the Latin America & Caribbean region, reinforcing Visa’s commitment to, and leadership in, enabling streamlined, secure and efficient B2B payments in a locality known for its diverse and dynamic business landscape.

Visa Commercial Pay includes virtual card B2B payment solutions developed to improve cashflow for businesses and reduce outdated manual processes. Since its launch in 2020, it has helped corporates move away from traditional business payment methods to more automated and secure processes. Visa’s continued innovation and leadership in virtual card solutions comes as a recent report from Juniper Research found that by 2028, global virtual card spend will have increased by 355%, up from $3.1 trillion in 2023.¹

Visa Reimagines Customer Loyalty with New Web3 Engagement Solution

Research shows that consumers today have new and heightened expectations about the value they receive from loyalty programs, and this extends beyond traditional points-based benefits¹. People want to be rewarded not just for their purchases and loyalty, but for their engagement and interactions with a brand – especially if it is fun, easy and rewarding. This is underscored by the fact that more than 77% of consumers worldwide value real-world experiences, and 60% desire curated experiences tailored to their preferences².

The new Visa solution, powered by SmartMedia Technologies, can provide brands with an enterprise platform that bridges Web2 with Web3 innovation that is user-grade and can be customized to create curated experiences and offers for consumers. With the use of this solution, brands can engage customers by providing a digital wallet where they can apply rewards – such as perks and benefits – towards virtual, digital, or real-world experiences, in various sectors such as travel, sports and more.

“SmartMedia Technologies is thrilled to partner with Visa in revolutionizing the future of loyalty and engagement. Our enterprise Web3 platform seamlessly integrates with Visa’s digital payment solutions, offering unparalleled experiences for brands to connect with consumers,” said Tyler Moebius, CEO of SmartMedia Technologies. “This collaboration is not just about enhancing customer rewards; it’s about redefining the value exchange between brands and consumers in a mobile payments-first world. We are committed to delivering experiences that are as rewarding as they are engaging and relevant for today’s evolving consumers.”

Our Take on The Top 10 News

Visa’s recent changes show that the company is serious about tackling the challenges in the payments world. By using AI and blockchain, Visa is meeting the needs of businesses and consumers. Their partnerships with companies like J.P. Morgan and Western Union highlight the importance of working together. Visa’s new rewards programs are designed to keep customers engaged and happy. Overall, Visa is setting a great example for the industry and making financial services easier and more secure for everyone.

Wrapping