In a bid to encourage the development of cutting edge e-payment applications, the leader in global payments technology, Visa, came up with an enhanced Authorize.Net Developer Center. In a recent press release, Visa announced that its new Developer Center is going to provide rich resource for the independent developers intending to build applications supporting electronic payments and related services for major payment networks including VisaNet.

The Developer Center builds on Authorize.Net's existing platform, which Visa acquired as part of the purchase of CyberSource (News - Alert) earlier this year, the company further mentioned in the release.

Consumers, merchants as well as financial institutions can hugely benefit from rapid development and deployment of payment applications. According to the Visa officials, the enhanced Developer Center brings the necessary resources for developers to quickly build and implement payment applications for consumers, merchants and financial institutions. The e-payment applications can be designed to run on a variety of devices, from PCs to smartphones, and could support applications including eCommerce transactions, mobile transactions, person-to-person payments and payments at the physical point of sale.

Thus, the Developer Center is expected to play the role of a central community with tools and advice that developers at any level can use to readily connect through CyberSource to VisaNet along with other payments networks, and will be available free of charge.

By no means is security going to be compromised under the new arrangement, the Visa officials said. The core of VisaNet, including the data centers that process transactions and perform authorizations and fraud detection, remains protected and highly secure. This allows developers to draw on all the power of VisaNet, with the network providing the same high levels of security, reliability and speed all the while for the acquirers, merchants, issuers and cardholders.

“Visa has developed many network-based payment products and services. But when you combine the power of our network, the resources of the Developer Center and the creativity of software developers, there's no limit to the developments that can emerge. Good ideas come from a variety of sources,” said global head of product for Visa, Jim McCarthy, in a statement.

It should be mentioned here that Visa began opening its network more than a decade ago when it reconfigured VisaNet from proprietary technology to a network architecture based on open protocols. Through subsequent programs like Merchant Direct Exchange, Visa was able to establish point-to-point links between the payment acceptance systems of high-volume merchants and VisaNet to enable simpler connectivity and customized authorization and file transfer programs.

Just a few days back, the pioneer in the payment technology announced the winning of IBM's (News - Alert) annual Information on Demand 2010 Innovation Award. In a separate statement, Visa announced that the award recognized its leadership in using cutting-edge information technology and real-time data analytics to drive growth, prevent fraud, and improve the consumer payment experience.