Visa’s Digital Enablement Programme (VDEP) has built on the company’s existing work in tokenisation and adds a turnkey, toll-free commercial framework that is accessible to its financial clients and tech partners.

The new initiative got somewhat lost in the hoopla accompanying Google’s Android Pay announcement at its I/O event at the end of last week. In fact, Android Pay is the scheme’s first partner.

The aim of VDEP is to simplify how partners access Visa’s token technology. To this end, the credit card giant claims it offers rapid integration to the scheme for financial institutions and tech firms.

In addition, the programme has no pass-through fees for financial institutions, merchants and tech firms, said the credit card giant.

Because it is available to Visa’s 14,500 financial institutions, VDEP also has international scale, it argues.