Across Asia Pacific, consumers have grown accustomed to purchasing products, services, and subscriptions digitally – e-commerce in the region is growing fast on track to account for 6.4% of global GDP by 2025, up from 3.8% in 2019¹. 

Because of this, digital payments such as contactless credit and debit cards, and mobile phone wallets have become the main way to pay. Speed, convenience, and security are critical to the way people pay, as customers want to access their digital products and services with minimal friction.

Payment tokenisation is essential to meeting these expectations. Through payment tokens, acquirers and merchants can deliver more seamless transactions, reduce the risk of fraud, and increase payment success rates. For consumers, it means better experiences when shopping online, hailing a ride, subscribing to their favourite platforms, and more. 

A sign of how integral tokens have become to Asia Pacific is Visa’s latest milestone, where Visa Token Service (VTS) has issued over 1 billion tokens in the region². Merchants in Asia Pacific who have adopted VTS for their digital payments have experienced a higher payment success rate or authorisation uplift of USD2 billion³. 

How does tokenisation work?

In simple terms, payment tokens are unique digital identifiers that replace card details needed to complete transactions², creating conveniences for consumers. When consumers use a ride-hailing app, for example, they do not have to input their card information and sensitive payment details each time they decide to book a ride, as ride-hailing platforms supporting tokenisation will save their details in the form of a payment token.

Tokenisation also minimises exposure of customer information and only authorises specific transactions, such as on ride-hailing or e-commerce apps that consumers frequent. This has been a game-changer for many, with Visa Token Service (VTS) supporting a global network of over 130 million merchants and 14,000 financial institutions³.

Unlocking value for merchants and consumers

This seemingly simple technology unleashes huge potential. Payment tokens enable many conveniences for consumers’ today – payments can be made online or in stores easily when consumers register their cards on Apple Pay³ and other digital wallets, while essential services from subscriptions to insurance coverage can be maintained with minimal effort. They have more freedom and control while worrying less about security and disruptions to their lives.

For merchants, the security and speed offered by payment tokens can boost their revenues. Because payment credentials are automatically updated and secured by token issuers, merchants can experience higher payment success rates, with VTS increasing payment success for merchants who adopted it for their digital payments⁶. This potentially translates into millions in revenue and more satisfied and loyal customers in the long run.

Merchants who have adopted VTS have also seen a 58% reduction in payment fraud⁶. This is made possible by reducing reliance on sensitive customer account information in transactions, while added authentication methods by VTS prevent abuse by bad actors and fraudsters.

These improvements have generated a clear benefit for Asia Pacific’s digital economy. With improved payment success rates generating USD2 billion for merchants adopting VTS in Asia Pacific³, payment tokenisation is set to transform commerce for the better in the years to come.

We are still at the start of Asia Pacific’s tokenisation journey. Learn more about what it can do for you with Visa.

¹ ADB, https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/922086/e-commerce-evolution-asia-pacific-opportunities-challenges.pdf, accessed March 2024

² Visa, https://www.visa.com.sg/content/dam/VCOM/Media%20Kits/PDF/visa-security-tokenization-infographic.pdf, accessed March 2024

³ Visa, https://www.visa.com.sg/partner-with-us/payment-technology/visa-token-service.html, accessed March 2024

⁴ Visa, https://www.visa.com.sg/content/dam/VCOM/Media%20Kits/PDF/visa-security-tokenization-infographic.pdf, accessed March 2024

⁵ Visa, https://www.visa.com.sg/partner-with-us/payment-technology/visa-token-service.html, accessed March 2024

⁶ Visa Risk Datamart, Global, FY22 Q1–Q4 Token Fraud Rate vs PAN Fraud Rate by PV for merchants with over 1,000 CNP token transactions per month per country. Merchant’s individual results may vary.