Visa Europe’s new security tech could speed up the arrival of Apple Pay

Visa Europe has announced that it is introducing a more secure method of paying for products with your smartphone, one that keeps your credit card information concealed from prying eyes. The method is called ‘tokenisation’, and Visa wants it launched in Europe by mid-April.

Tokenisation conceals your credit card information by substituting it with a series of numbers that you can use to authorise payments. This means that when you pay for something using your phone, you’ll be submitting the authorisation token while all of your card and account details stay safely with you.

The fact that Visa wants it launched in Europe could help to speed up the arrival of Apple Pay and other, similar, contactless payment methods. After all, according to The Next Web, the introduction of a token-based system in the US was instrumental in the launch of Apple Pay last year.

Visa has also announced a partnership with Fastacash, allowing people to send money to other Visa users overseas via social media.

All signs point towards the impending launch of Apple Pay in Europe, and the rest of the world, but we still don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen. Whenever it does happen having features, like tokenisation, that make payments more secure can only be a good thing.