Lisbon Metro’s Open-Loop Project Gets Help from Visa, with Major Contribution from Payments Scheme

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Lisbon is latest European capital to launch open-loop payments, with the Lisbon Metro introducing the service recently.

It’s also the latest open-loop project to feature a major contribution from a large payments scheme–in this case, Visa, which is believed to be providing some form of funding to the transit operator, Mobility Payments has learned.

The metro launched open-loop acceptance on its four-line network in late June at all 56 stations. Riders can tap credit and debit cards and NFC wallets associated with Apple Pay and Google Wallet to pay for full-fare single rides.

The operator charges an 11% lower fare to riders who use its closed-loop Viva Trip cards, and a spokesman confirmed that the metro is targeting the open-loop service at visitors and other occasional riders. The metro said it had ridership of 173 million in 2019.

The project required validators at 752 gates each equipped with EMV-enabled readers, both for entry and exit. That is a total of 1,504 validators. Lisbon Metro’s incumbent fare-collection system supplier, Indra, upgraded the terminals.

Other suppliers on the project are payments service provider Littlepay and acquirer Unicre, in addition to Visa and Visa-owned Cybersource.

Lisbon Metro told Mobility Payments that the capital cost of the project was €2.5 million (US$2.7 million), but did not detail the expenses.

It likely consisted largely of upgrades to existing validators. It’s not clear if it included supply of replacement validators. There would have also been a need for back-office software to support open loop. Lisbon Metro is believed to have hired Spain-based Indra directly for the upgrades.

Project Funding from Visa?
As far as Visa’s involvement, the metro spokesman at first said the payments scheme was providing tokenization of cards that customers tap to pay.

When pressed, the spokesman, after a few weeks, said more generally that Visa “did a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure the integration with the systems that had been installed by Indra 15 years ago were compatible.” Visa, came up with the open-loop “solution,” developed by Cybersource, which “made this implementation possible,” he added.

But Visa is providing more than just technology for the project. Industry observers say it’s not uncommon for Visa, like rival Mastercard, to provide funding for open-loop projects, including footing the bill for at least some of the capital costs, as Mobility Payments has reported.

In return, the payments schemes often get marketing rights. In the case of Visa, the deals sometime also include work for the scheme’s gateway and processing subsidiary, Cybersource. That is, if Cybersource is available to work in the market, which it is in Portugal.

Visa clearly has marketing rights for the Lisbon Metro open-loop service. For example, a promotional video on the operator’s contactless payments page features Visa’s logo prominently. It refers to the open-loop service as That is despite the fact the metro accepts both Visa-and Mastercard-branded cards and card credentials in NFC wallets.

The capital budget for the project, at €2.5 million, was not large. Just the same, if Visa funded these costs, the Lisbon Metro does not seem to want to say. A spokesman said the operator needed clearance for the agency’s answers, which would likely have included gaining approval from Visa.

Visa usually characterizes its contributions to open-loop projects as providing technology. For example, for an open-loop pilot in the Italian city of Genoa last year, Visa said it was the “technological partner of the solution,” when asked if it was funding the project. Cybersource also worked on the project.

Visa’s country manager for Portugal would not comment for this story, referring questions to Visa’s press office.

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