Visa Europe is to launch a tokenization service “customized for the needs of the European market”, the payments network has announced. The new service will be available for financial institutions from mid-April 2015.

“Tokenization is one of the most important technologies to emerge in digital payments and has the potential to start a whole new chapter in the kinds of products that are developed,” says Visa Europe’s Sandra Alzetta.

“For that reason, we’ve designed this flexible and scalable service, enabling issuers, merchants and acquirers to provide consumers with the next generation of innovative payment methods – all with the high level of security they expect.”

Details of exactly how Visa Europe’s service will differ from the token service offered by Visa Inc are not being provided yet, the payments network has told NFC World, but more information is expected to be released at Mobile World Congress 2015 next week.

“We’re not really getting into any of the technical specs of it. Visa Europe is a separate entity from Visa Inc and so we work specifically with our Visa Europe bank partners, our member banks, to make sure whatever we develop suits their needs and fits their needs as well,” Alzetta adds.

“We’re always focused on our member banks and helping them meet the needs of their customers so we’ll be working with them on products and so forth moving forward. We’ll be launching the tokenization service in April and we’ll be working from there.”