Visa has issued more than 4 billion network tokens, surpassing the number of physical cards in circulation worldwide.

The payments giant said that the tokens, which are issued through its Visa Token Service (VTS) are aimed at securing digital payments and accelerating e-commerce innovation and acceptance.

In a tokenized transaction, the customer’s 16-digit card number is replaced by a digital token which only Visa can unlock, which protects the underlying account information.

Visa said it has seen the use of digital tokens double in one year, as e-commerce transaction volumes jumped by more than 50 per cent since the onset of the pandemic.

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.

Jack Forestell, executive vice president and chief product officer at Visa, said:“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.”

“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.”

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