PR89556

SINGAPORE, May 24, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Innovations to meet evolving consumer behaviour top of agenda at region's

largest security summit

Visa, the leader in digital payments, has set its focus on strengthening

payments security as consumer behaviour evolves during the pandemic. Addressing

more than 1,500 partners and clients in its first virtual edition of the Asia

Pacific Visa Security Summit last week, Visa stressed the need for robust

payment experiences in a changing commerce environment.

Visa has charted consumer behaviour changes along three trends pervasive in

Asia Pacific – contactless payments are becoming a health and safety priority,

on-demand eCommerce experiences have heightened expectations of quality and

speed of service, and lines between eCommerce and physical buying have been

blurred. As a result, fraud has migrated from traditional to digital commerce

and Visa is urging the industry to take proactive steps to tackle them.

Joe Cunningham, Regional Risk Officer, Asia Pacific, Visa, said, "The pandemic

has greatly accelerated changes in consumer behaviour, commerce and hence

digital payments. We believe these patterns are here to stay and many

first-time digital consumers will decide where to shop based on whether they

trust the seller or not. As digital commerce becomes mainstream, payment

security is a fundamental driver of trust so the industry must deliver on

consumers' expectations of safe, convenient and fast payment experiences."

The trends in commerce resulting from the pandemic point to new ways in how

consumers shop and transact.

1. Contactless payments – As consumers prioritise health and safety, the

spotlight will focus on contactless payments and tap to pay infrastructure. In

Asia Pacific, one in two face to face Visa transactions are now contactless[1].

Visa expects contactless payments to replace cash and become the preferred

payment method for businesses and consumers.

2. On-demand eCommerce experiences – Shoppers expect products and services to

be available when they want and where they want. This will require faster,

smoother and more convenient buying and payment experiences.

3. Blurring of lines between eCommerce and physical buying – Visa data shows

that excluding travel, global eCommerce payment credentials grew over 20% in

the last quarter[2] versus last year, while eCommerce payments volume averaged

at least 30% growth in India and Singapore over the last three quarters[3].

This shift is likely to persist as eCommerce growth continues to be robust even

as consumers begin to return to stores.

In dealing with the risk of fraud, Visa has introduced solutions without

tipping the balance between payment security and customer convenience. Visa

Secure, which uses the latest standards of the EMV(R) 3-D Secure protocol[4],

adds a layer of fraud defence so financial institutions and sellers can be

confident that transactions are genuine. This potentially reduces lost sales

for sellers because of declined payments and improves the overall consumer

shopping experience.

Visa Token Service (VTS) turns sensitive payment data like card numbers and

account details into randomised tokens, thus devaluing data and rendering it

useless for fraudsters even if stolen. Data for the US shows that tokens can

reduce fraud by 26% on average[5] compared to online card transactions where

consumers enter their card details for making payments. With VTS, Visa took

more than five years to issue 1.4 billion tokens worldwide but has now crossed

the 2 billion mark in just 10 months[6]. VTS is now one of the largest payments

security platforms in the market offering data protection while reducing

unnecessary form filling steps for consumers.

Emphasising the widespread need to adopt payment security solutions based on

industry standards, Joe Cunningham added, "Fraudsters evolve their methods

faster than consumers and most businesses can prepare for. To stay ahead of the

curve, the payments ecosystem must buttress existing infrastructure with

enhanced and trusted fraud management solutions. In an increasingly digital

world, payments security is crucial for consumer trust and must be the

foundation of business and commerce, now and in the future"

The 2021 Asia Pacific Visa Security Summit is one of the largest payment

security events in the region. Held from 18 to 21 May 2021, it brought together

leading risk professionals to share learnings and best practices on payment

security innovation.

The Summit addressed some of the key changes witnessed since last year,

particularly on consumer behaviour patterns and the readiness of businesses to

cater to these changes. It focused on the risks arising from a new commerce

landscape and the measures that players must take to safeguard their businesses

and their consumers.

[1] As of Feb 2021

[2] Source: Jan – Mar 2021, as reported in Visa's Q2 2021 quarterly earnings

[3] Source: Jul 2020 – Mar 2021, as reported in Visa's Q2 2021 quarterly

earnings

[4] EMV(R) is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries and an

unregistered trademark elsewhere. The EMV trademark is owned by EMVCo, LLC.

[5] Visa Token Service to Add 28 New Partners to Strengthen Digital Payment

Security Globally[

https://investor.visa.com/news/news-details/2020/Visa-Token-Service-to-Add-28-New-Partners-to-Strengthen-Digital-Payment-Security-Globally/default.aspx

]

[6] Why we celebrate tokens:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-celebrate-tokens-jack-forestell/?trk=public_profile_article_view

About Visa Inc.

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[

https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/our_business.html ], visa.com/blog

[https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/blog.html ] and @VisaNews[

https://twitter.com/VisaNews ].

SOURCE:  Visa