Finance
Visa Unveils Installment Payment Capabilities to Give Shoppers Simple and Flexible Way to Pay
New APIs will allow merchants and financial institutions to give Visa cardholders more ways to pay
Visa (NYSE: V) is making it easier to provide shoppers the ability to choose how they pay before, during or after purchase with the introduction of a suite of Visa’s installment solutions APIs. Through a pilot program, participating issuers and merchants will be able to offer their customers an installment payment experience at checkout using a Visa card they already have in their wallet.
With Visa’s installment solutions, Visa cardholders will have the option to divide their total purchase amount into smaller, equal payments over a defined time period on qualifying purchases, at the store and online or while traveling abroad1.
“Visa’s installment capabilities are changing the game by allowing issuers to leverage an existing payment account consumers already have and are familiar with, instead of asking them to submit to a credit check, download an app or open another line of credit,” said Sam Shrauger, senior vice president, global head of issuer and consumer solutions, Visa. “We expect installments to become a foundational method of payment at checkout for both domestic and cross-border commerce payment transactions.”
Visa is partnering with clients around the world to pilot a variety of installment use cases. CyberSource will be a leading payment management platform to support Visa’s installments capabilities for its participating merchant clients and acquirer partners that utilize CyberSource for global payments enablement. In addition, MakeMyTrip integrated with Simpl platform and Kotak Mahindra Bank in India, Alpha Bank, eMAG, ING Bank Romania and PayU in Romania, Russian Standard Bank in Russia and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Mashreq bank in United Arab Emirates are all piloting Visa’s installments capabilities.
Visa’s installment solutions aim to simplify today’s friction-filled and time-consuming installment process at checkout for buyers and sellers. Online shoppers today are typically presented with an installment offer at the final checkout screen. Consumers are then required to sign up with a designated provider, apply for a line of credit and – if approved –use their funds toward a given purchase. Each time a consumer shops with a different merchant who offers a different installment capability, they need to complete the same process again to obtain a new line of credit.
Now, merchants can leverage cardholders’ existing relationships with financial institutions to provide Visa’s installment solutions at the point of sale – online or in store – through a single API-based integration. This will ultimately help merchants enhance sales, improve customer loyalty and overall cash flow, while offering their shoppers a friction-free payment experience at checkout.
Globally, installments represented $1.2 trillion in payment volume in 2017 and have been growing 15 percent year-over-year, twice as fast as credit cards.2 A recent study found U.S. cardholders think installments are helpful for budgeting (74%) and alleviating the stress of making large purchases (70%).3 In addition, three-in-five (60%) of millennials in the U.S. said that they are interested in point of sale financing for large online purchases.4
While installments have been gaining traction in the U.S., they have also been a popular payment option internationally. In Brazil, an early-adopter of installment payments, approximately 50 percent of all credit payment volume is already on installments.5 In Canada, 41 percent of cardholders surveyed said they would consider using installment payments on purchases of $500 or more.6
Scheduled to be available to clients and partners in January 2020, Visa’s installment solutions will be one of the first new payment innovations available through Visa Next. Visa Next is a new destination for accessing new solutions in Visa’s product pipeline. For further information, please visit the Visa Next website. For more information about Visa Next and to partner with Visa to build and enable the next digital-commerce experience, please visit http://www.visanext.com.
About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network – enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device, for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.
1Product is in development and availability will vary by country
2Euromonitor International, 2018.
3The Payments Report, Q1 2018. Installment Plans, Loans, and Balance Transfers. Auriemma Consulting Group. April 11, 2018
4Source: May 2017 Ipsos US nationwide survey conducted online, n = 2,000 adults ages 18 and over
5The Credit Card Installment Feature quantitative research project was commissioned by Visa and conducted by an independent research firm, Ipsos, using an online panel of 2,108 consumers in June and July of 2017.6ABECS (Associação Brasileira das Empresas de Cartões de Crédito e Serviços), Nov 2016 – Sep 2017. http://www.abecs.org.br/indicadores-graficos
6Visa Canada Installment Research 2017. n=2,108 Canadians aged 18-65.
Source: Visa Inc.
