Verified by Visa to get a facelift

Visa is to trial a new user interface for its secure online payment service, Verified by Visa.

The payment card giant introduced Verified by Visa for online retailers in 2002 and the technology has remained pretty much unaltered until now.

As part of the interface upgrade, users will no longer have to enter their additional security information in a new window. Instead, their browser will grey-out the main screen and overlay the Verified by Visa interface.

Speaking at a secure payments forum in London hosted by The Logic Group, Visa Europe e-commerce manager Peter Lofts said that one of the main reasons behind the change was evidence to suggest people can be wary of entering their details in a separate window due to concerns about phishing.

The new interface is aimed at reducing such fears in order to increase use of the service as well as new user enrolment. It will also serve to refresh the appearance of the interface which Lofts said was "clunky and looked out of date".

The new user interface will be piloted in the summer with one major card issuer, a number of large retailers and around 15,000 cardholders. The plan is to implement the updated service by the end of the year or early in 2010.

However, Lofts said Visa will not make the new user interface mandatory for retailers taking payments via Visa as the company feels take up will grow naturally.

"There is not an appetite within Visa to mandate it," he said.

According to Apacs more than 25 million cardholders have signed up to use Verified by Visa or MasterCard's SecureCode payments services. Visa says more than 200,000 retailers now use its service.