A Technical Letter issued in October 2013 included specifications for U.S. VisaNet endpoints to enable the minimum data fields. Clients with U.S. VisaNet endpoints are required to enable the minimum data fields that will be needed to ensure payment tokens can be recognized and processed seamlessly across the Visa ecosystem by June 2014. These mandatory modifications were part of the April 2014 VisaNet Business Enhancement Release and were aimed at ensuring all VisaNet endpoints - U.S. acquirer processors, acquirers, merchants, issuer processors and issuers that are directly connected to Visa - are keeping pace with industry developments in digital payments.

With efforts accelerating in the U.S. marketplace to enable streamlined digital payments, these system modifications are an important first step to ensure all Visa clients - regardless of scale or capability - will be able to recognize payment tokens passing over their systems and process them effectively. Marketplace activity in the U.S. creates a need for these requirements to first be implemented in the U.S.; Visa is in the process of developing a roadmap for VisaNet processing support for tokens globally.