Visa Promotes Tap-to-Phone Payments to Help Small Businesses Go Digital

Visa is integrating contactless payment capabilities directly into smartphones, allowing merchants to turn their phones into payment terminals without buying card readers or other hardware. The technology targets micro and small businesses in emerging markets, lowering the equipment barrier to accepting digital payments and bridging the payment gap between cash transactions and digital commerce.

Visa is now promoting its Tap to Phone service, which lets consumers pay by holding a contactless card or device near a merchant’s phone. Based on currently available information, Visa has not announced a formal launch date, the first countries where it will be available, merchant fees or subsidy amounts. The key development is the integration of an existing payment product into smartphones to accelerate the digital transformation of micro and small businesses.