Visa advocates for ‘transformational power’ of digital identity and payments

Visa has set out its stall as it “stands ready” to partner and work with governments at any stage of their digital identity deployment.

The company is trying to lead the way with its collaboration with the FIDO Alliance and passkeys. Visa is integrating biometrics-based authentication in payments through Visa Payment Passkeys, a technology based on the FIDO collaboration and which binds an account credential with a device. This enables an end user to use the same biometrics they use to unlock their device for payment authentication.

In a new white paper “Digital Identity and Payments” Visa envisions a parallel for digital identity, with the same mobile device holding digital identity credentials. “Visa’s ongoing work on Payment Passkeys may help facilitate a mutually reinforcing relationship between payments and digital identity that could benefit all stakeholders and end-users,” it reads. It is part of a trend of digital payments and identity converging.

Elsewhere, Visa sees digital identity as a foundational way for countries to uplift their economies while noting that governments should consider factors such as digital literacy, infrastructure readiness, security schemes, interoperability, global standards and how to create public trust when designing their digital identity strategies and systems.

In another white paper “The Transformational Power of Digital Payments for Governments” executive chairman of the board, Visa, Alfred F. Kelly introduces the first such white paper published by the Visa Government Solutions team. It signals the company’s full throttle belief in the digital payment transformation.

Visa argues that digitalization is no longer an optional supplement for the public sector but a “real and urgent imperative.” The payments company is outlining what it calls five key opportunities for the public sector such as automating public procurement and commercial payments; leveraging payments data for issues such as tourism recovery or urban design.

With in-depth breakdowns and case studies of programs and initiatives in countries such as Estonia, UK, India, South Korea, Singapore, Poland, Brazil, Nepal, Rwanda, and more, the white paper sculpts an argument for the transformative effects of digital services, data leverage, and technology implementation. “The digitalization agenda ultimately supports national competitiveness in the global economy,” the paper advocates. With such commitment to digital payments, Visa looks very willing to offer guidance to government officials around the world as it stakes its centrality to the phenomenon.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  passkeys  |  payment passkey  |  Visa