Visa Inc. Thursday announced the launch of Visa Developer, a program that gives third-party software application developers access to the company's technology, products and services. 

Visa said in a press release that the new Visa Developer platform is designed to help financial institutions, merchants, and technology companies meet the demands of consumers and merchants, who increasingly rely on connected devices to shop, pay and get paid. At launch, the new platform will offer access to some of Visa's most popular payment technologies and services, including accountholder identification, person-to-person payment capabilities, secure in-store and online payment services such as Visa Checkout, currency conversion and consumer transaction alerts. Visa plans to provide access to more of its payment capabilities over the next year, according to the announcement.

"As the leader in payments we have an opportunity to transform global commerce by opening up access to our global network and supporting our clients, industry partners and innovators in their pursuit of creating new, easier and more secure ways to pay," said Charlie Scharf, Visa CEO. "Visa Developer represents not only a new access point to our network, but a new distribution platform for Visa products and services globally."

Over the past few months, leading financial institutions, technology companies, and startups have participated in beta trials of the new Visa Developer platform and many have already created prototype applications using Visa technology, according to the announcement. Trial partners include Capital One, CIBC, Emirates NBD, National Australia Bank, RBC, TD Bank, Scotiabank, TSYS, U.S. Bank and VenueNext.

"We are unbundling Visa's full suite of products and services and giving developers open access to the underlying payment capabilities," said Rajat Taneja, Visa's executive vice president of technology. "We believe this will lead to the creation of entirely new commerce experiences with Visa technology integrated to enable greater security, scale and convenience when it comes time to pay. When you add the ability to distribute those new experiences across Visa's global network, you can see why Visa Developer will become the preferred playground for developers everywhere."