Paralympic Swimmer, Teresa Perales Fernández’s lessons for unleashing the potential of the payments industry

The countdown is on for the world's best athletes to assemble at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, an event that continues to inspire and motivate people around the world.

These athletes' prowess is built on ten key fundamentals of athleticism, that offer invaluable lessons for individuals and businesses alike.

Looking at speed and power, let’s find out what we can learn from these fundamentals to level up the payments game.

Meet para-swimmer and Team Visa athlete, Teresa Perales Fernández

In the world of Paralympic swimming, mastery of speed and power isn’t just a skill – it’s an integral art form that champions like Teresa Perales Fernández have perfected.

Teresa discovered her talent for swimming after losing mobility in her legs at age 19. Since then, with years of precision training, she’s harnessed speed and power to propel herself forward in the sport.
She has amassed an impressive collection of 27 Paralympian medals, including seven golds, making her the most decorated Spanish athlete in history, and the first Paralympian to receive the prestigious Gran Cruz del Mérito Deportivo from her country.

Teresa’s journey didn’t stop at the podium, she went on to establish the Teresa Perales Foundation, championing causes closest to her heart. She was recognised for her efforts and dedication in 2021, when she received the Princess of Asturias Award, which she regards as the highest honour of her career.

Speed and Power: Propelling seamless payments forward

Just as in the Paralympic pool, speed and power are increasingly becoming the cornerstones of bringing to life exceptional payment experiences for businesses and consumers alike.

Gone are the days when your choices were based solely on proximity. In the past, you relied on neighbourhood stores and personal relationships for your shopping and banking needs. Your local grocer knew your preferences, and the bank manager understood your circumstances, offering tailored advice.

With the rapid pace of change, we’ve gained speed, convenience, a wider range of products and services, and the ability to buy and sell far beyond our local town – all bringing new benefits and opportunities.

Contactless has been one of the most defining trends in how consumers shop - and how businesses make money - over the past few years, but it didn’t start off that way. Visa started working on contactless technology over 15 years ago, five years later, it made its debut during the Olympic and Paralympic Games London 2012 for the first time on London transport, and subsequently tubes, followed by taxis.

The introduction of contactless had benefits far wider than just journeys themselves. It led to increased footfall in surrounding areas, bolstering local businesses and communities, and enhancing the city's appeal to tourists - ultimately benefiting the wider economy.

Experiencing the convenience of contactless payments spurred a shift in people's habits and expectations for seamless transactions. As businesses integrated the technology and consumers embraced it, contactless payments became ubiquitous, now constituting 90% of all face-to-face transactions in the UK.

It’s easy to see why when you consider that when paying by contactless, Visa verifies the credential, checks for fraud, verifies funds and sends authorisation – all in under 300ms, less than the blink of an eye. Now that’s Olympic-worthy speed, which in the world of payments translates to easy, seamless and convenient experiences.

Similarly, the future is here today in the form of tokenisation, a simple yet powerful concept pioneered by Visa. Tokenisation substitutes the 16-digit number found on the front of a debit or credit card with a string of numbers that can be used to authorise a transaction without exposing the underlying account details.

Aside from its security benefits, tokenisation enables the delivery of ever-more personalised, intuitive and interconnected payment experiences. A token is seen as a high-quality credential – the more tokens that exist, the bigger the pool of high-quality credentials there are to transact with. The knock-on effect is a stronger network, higher trust, and increased revenue for businesses.

And herein lies the power of tokenisation – namely the processing power that is in place to enable fast and secure decisions at the point of purchase – creating an ever-more seamless experience for consumers and businesses.

The power of tokenisation is exponentially enhanced by combining it with cutting-edge technologies like digital ID, behavioural risk scoring, and biometrics, along with advancements in mobile networks and quantum processing power, offers vast potential for further enhancements.

Soon, biometric features such as eyes, face, fingerprints, and behavioural patterns will replace traditional credentials to authorise payments. In the not-too-distant future, digital IDs will unlock even more value by providing a highly accurate proof of identity when linked to your biometrics. You’ll simply need to link your accounts to your biometrics and away you go.

So just like Teresa has mastered speed and power so she can touch the finish line, Visa combines speed and power to refine payment solutions. Seamless transactions and better consumer experiences and outcomes are powered by our agile innovations in digital payments; the sort of perfectly executed, seamless flip turns that will hopefully propel Teresa towards the podium in Paris.