Visa has removed one of the last hurdles for Apple Pay in Europe

Visa is rolling out a piece of financial technology known as "tokenisation" in Europe, $4.

Apple Pay is Apple's cardless payments system. In participating retailers, users can simply touch their iOS device to the payment terminal to make a purchase. So far, it's not available outside of the United States, although Apple is planning to expand.

When someone makes a purchase with Apple Pay, they don't actually share their card details with the retailer. Instead, a "token" which corresponds with their account details is issued to authorise a payment. It helps keep the users bank details more secure. (When someone makes a payment with a contactless card, in contrast, it uses their bank details.)

This "token" technology hasn't previously been available in Europe, hampering the rollout of Apple Pay. $4 that it will be launching tokenisation in European markets in mid-April this year.

$4 that Apple Pay is expected to launch in the UK in the "first half of 2015." Visa's announcement looks like further confirmation of this.