Tokenisation is emerging as the next major layer of global payment security, with cross-border transactions representing a significant new opportunity, according to Rishi Chhabra, Country Manager, Visa India.
India has already achieved considerable scale. More than half a billion cards in the country are tokenised, creating a foundation for safer digital payments and future payment innovation.
Tokenisation replaces sensitive card credentials with unique digital tokens. This reduces exposure of actual card information during transactions, limiting the value of compromised payment data to fraudsters.
The impact extends beyond security. Chhabra highlighted improvements in payment success rates following tokenisation, benefiting consumers, merchants and financial institutions by reducing unnecessary transaction failures.
The next opportunity is cross-border commerce. International transactions naturally involve greater complexity because the consumer, merchant, issuing bank and payment infrastructure can operate across different countries and regulatory environments.
An overseas bank may therefore perceive a transaction originating in another country as carrying greater risk. Tokenisation can provide additional confidence to issuers when authenticating and authorising such payments.
This becomes increasingly important as Indian consumers travel internationally and domestic businesses sell to global customers. Secure payment credentials could help reduce friction without compromising protection.
The development also reflects the changing card ecosystem. Physical cards, virtual cards, device-based payments and card-on-file tokenisation are increasingly becoming parts of an interconnected digital payment architecture.
Meanwhile, UPI has dramatically expanded India's digital payment culture. Rather than eliminating cards, its growth is pushing the broader industry toward simpler, faster and more secure payment experiences.
The larger transformation is from digitising payments to tokenising trust. As commerce becomes increasingly borderless, payment networks must establish confidence between institutions that may never directly interact. Tokenisation could become an important trust layer connecting consumers, merchants, banks and digital platforms across borders.
