Visa launches platform to reduce dependency on payment terminals
Los Angeles (USA), Jan 31 (EFE).- Visa has launched a new platform, Visa Acceptance Cloud (VAC), as an alternative to point-of-sale terminals (POS) and is to start processing payments directly through smartphones connected to the cloud, according to a statement released by the multinational.
From now on, businesses will not need any additional “hardware” to process customer payments.
“Acceptance in the cloud is the future of payments,” the vice president of Solutions for Merchants and Acquirers in Latin America and the Caribbean, Juan José Fernández, was quoted as saying in the statement.
In January 2020, Visa first offered a service called “Tap to Phone,” which turned next-generation Android smartphones and tablets into contactless POS terminals.
“Tap to Phone,” which at the end of 2021 had 300,000 devices spread over 54 countries around the world, has marked a path that Visa now hopes to continue with VAC technology.
The initiative comes after announcing the results of the global study “Back to Business 2022,” prepared by the financial services multinational and where 82% of the small and medium-sized companies surveyed said that they planned to accept some type of digital payment this year.
Visa’s survey also finds that 73% of these companies consider accepting new forms of payment to be “essential” to growing their business; while 24% said they plan to allow transactions in cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin.
