Visa Tokens Surpass Physical Visa Cards in Circulation

Visa (NYSE: V) today announced that the company has now issued more than 4 billion network tokens worldwide through Visa Token Service (VTS), marking a major milestone in its proprietary offering to help secure digital payments and further accelerate ecommerce innovation and acceptance. This historic milestone, which nearly doubled Visa’s token count in one year, surpasses the number of physical Visa cards in circulation worldwide. This milestone underscores the powerful security that tokens provide to merchants, issuers and consumers alike.

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“Tokenization is a simple, yet powerful concept pioneered by Visa: conceal and devalue sensitive payment data to stay ahead of fraudsters and make digital payments more secure,” said Jack Forestell, executive vice president and chief product officer at Visa. “The uptick in issuers, acquirers, merchants and consumers all transacting with Visa tokens, reinforces that the future of money is truly digital, and digital money must be built on trust.”

E-commerce volume has grown by more than 50 percent¹ since the onset of the pandemic. But with the convenience of online shopping comes increased consumer expectations and demand for simple and safe transactions. Visa is innovating ahead of consumer demand through Visa Token Service, which replaces 16-digit Visa account numbers with a digital token only Visa can unlock, helping to protect the underlying account information from fraudsters and bad actors.

Tokens: The Security Guards of Online Shopping

Tokens are the unsung heroes of ecommerce which the entire payments ecosystem can benefit from, with issuers, acquirers, merchants, and consumers all seeing a range of benefits including reduced fraud, ease of use across devices and more.

Visa analysis shows that across more than 8,600 issuers and 800,000 merchants, Visa tokens have led to a 28 percent reduction in fraud rates and a 3 percent increase in approval rates – increasing sales for merchants while saving them money on fraud-related expenses.

The Future of Authentication, Anchored by Tokens

In an age where most of our financial lives exist in the cloud, advanced technology helps ensure customer data is protected wherever transactions take place. Authentication 2.0 – the future of consumer protection – is anchored by tokens and tools such as Visa’s Cloud Token Framework (CTF), which is designed to enhance security and increase approval rates for card-not-present transactions across multiple payment experiences and devices.

“This milestone is indicative of the continued investment Visa is making in safe, reliable and seamless transactions around the globe,” said Forestell. “Continued adoption of tokenization will help enable Visa’s mission of helping individuals, businesses and economies thrive.”

For more information on how Visa is leading the Token transformation, visit here.

About Visa

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.

¹https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales/

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Contact information

For press inquiries
Meg Omecene
momecene@visa.com