Tokenisation Now Powers Most Online Payments on Visa's Network

The technology has become increasingly common as consumers store card credentials with retailers, digital wallets and subscription services. Each stored credential can be represented by a token, reducing the amount of raw card data circulating across the internet. Visa's figures, as reported by ITWeb, suggest that this model now underpins the bulk of card-not-present activity on its network.

Why It Matters for African Commerce

The growth of tokenised transactions carries particular weight for markets across Africa, where online shopping, digital wallets and cross-border payments have expanded rapidly in recent years. As more African consumers transact with merchants both locally and in Europe and beyond, the security layer sitting behind those payments becomes central to building trust in digital commerce.

Card fraud and data breaches remain persistent concerns for merchants and banks operating in the Africa-Europe corridor, where transactions frequently cross borders and regulatory environments. A payment infrastructure that reduces the exposure of raw card details can lower the risk of fraud-related losses and help smaller merchants meet security expectations without holding sensitive data themselves.

For African fintech firms and e-commerce platforms, the widespread adoption of tokenisation on major networks also points to an industry standard they will increasingly need to support. Aligning with these methods can ease integration with international payment partners and improve the customer experience by cutting down on declined transactions and manual re-entry of card information.

A Shifting Baseline

Visa's disclosure reflects a broader move within the payments sector toward embedding security directly into the transaction process rather than treating it as an add-on. With most online payments on the network already tokenised, the practice is becoming a baseline rather than an exception.

The company did not, in the coverage reported by ITWeb, break down how these figures vary by region or transaction type. Still, the headline statistic offers a clear signal of where digital payment security is heading, with implications for merchants, banks and consumers who increasingly rely on online channels to buy and sell.

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