Visa Inc. took the bold step today of preparing to open its payments platform to anyone and everyone who wants to build a payments application into an online or mobile service.

But Visa is doing so with some stringent rules attached.

Visa officially started its beta for V.me, a developer platform that opens Visa’s API for all to use. The platform, about which Bank Innovation had heard rumblings for several months now, will formally open for business in “early” 2012.

Visa is opening APIs for general payments, including in-game payments, person-to-person payments, and mobile payments and services, including its mobile wallet. In Visa’s words, “Whether you’re developing the next cool app or an eCommerce store, V.me allows you to accept payments securely with everyone’s favorite payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.” In other words, the developer platform will facilitate agnostic payment tools for developers to put into use. Included in Visa’s developer tools is the code to facilitate “click-to-buy on a computer, touch-to-buy for a mobile browser, and wave-to-buy for physical point-of-sale NFC transactions.”

However, Visa has some strict rules in its Terms of Use that deserve a read by any developer who plans to utilize V.me. Among the key terms to consider are:

• Visa is granted a license to “use Your Application and review the code in Your Application for testing and other related purposes”;
• Visa is granted a license to the developer’s trademarks to “publicize Your usage of a Developer Center, the Materials and Your Application,” even as Visa forbids the developer from doing the same, and requires strict confidentiality from the developer regarding the developer’s agreement with Visa; and 
• Visa puts the onus of complying with Gramm Leach Bliley and the like on the developer.

This doesn’t mean developer will not or should not use V.me — that will depend on the platform’s utility. But using V.me will not come without some “cost” in the form of rather strict terms of use.

That said, the impending launch of V.me is a landmark for financial services. Who even five years ago would have thought that Visa, an old guard among the old guard of the banking establishment would open its APIs to developers at all, let alone do so with the same zeal and usability as Google and the like? Not I, that’s for sure. V.me marks the next chapter in banking, where traditional banking enterprises take the lead in fostering innovation for the greater good. Combine that with the economic force of these companies, and you have a potent formula that should foment vastly beneficial banking innovation. Or, put another way, thanks, Visa.