Pushing digital economy in Asia-Pacific with Visa data security

Visa commits to safeguarding the payment ecosystem through a multi-layered approach to payment data safety

In an age where e-commerce is safer, more advanced, and accessible than ever before, Visa remains committed to working with partners across the industry to prevent potential attacks with a portfolio of risk products and services.

Digital payments continue to grow across the Asia-Pacific as consumers become more active users of e-commerce and rapidly adopt cashless methods of transactions.

Central banks and regulators are also implementing digital initiatives to reap the benefits of digital payments which include greater transaction convenience, bolstering innovation, and lowering costs associated with cash handling.

These developments have also created a proliferation of data, which is increasingly attractive to cybercriminals. According to industry research, fraud is projected to cost retailers worldwide $130 billion over the next five years.

According to Joe Cunningham, head of Risk, Asia-Pacific at Visa, almost every government in the Asia-Pacific is focused on driving a digitisation agenda, reducing the reliance on cash and cheques.

This has created tremendous opportunities for digital payment innovations. The payments industry generates significant amounts of data, some of which is sensitive and attractive to criminal organisations.

“We play a unique role protecting the security and integrity of the payments ecosystem, to the benefit of merchants, cardholders and all our clients. We continuously invest to ensure Visa remains the most innovative, reliable, and secure digital payment network,” said Cunningham.

Multi-layered approach to payment security

Issuers and retailers are responding to consumer demands for greater convenience through access and use of payment account information across multiple channels and devices.

By 2021, the number of connected devices is projected to be roughly 25 billion.

As consumers shop and pay with digital devices, Visa is helping to safeguard the payment ecosystem through a multi-layered approach to payment data safety with solutions and services based on global security standards, protecting, and devaluing sensitive data.

This approach has helped to keep global fraud rates at historic lows, even as payment volumes grow. By 2025, Visa expects the industry to continue this trajectory as payment security technologies become more advanced.

Using security innovation to fight fraud

The rewards of innovation are double-edged. As the threat of cybercrime becomes more sophisticated and pervasive, Visa, together with the industry, is pioneering new ways and solutions to secure e-commerce experiences further and prevent potential attacks.

For instance, Visa Advanced Authorisation is a service that uses predictive analytics combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyse more than 500 unique risk attributes and allocates a risk score for each transaction.

This score is then shared with financial institutions so they can make an informed decision on whether to approve or decline a transaction. On average, Visa analyses more than six billion pieces of data every day. When data analytics is used with authentication methods like biometrics to verify the cardholder, payment security is enhanced.

With e-commerce sales in Asia-Pacific expected to reach $3.5 trillion in 2021, further cementing the region as the biggest market in the world for online shopping, technologies like tokenisation will help to ensure no token details are transmitted during an online transaction.

Visa Token Service replaces sensitive account information, such as the 16-digit account number, with a unique digital identifier called a token. This token allows payments to be processed without exposing actual account details that could potentially be compromised.

Cunningham added, “We envisage a future free from passwords, where consumers enjoy the benefits of advanced technology to authenticate their identity. As governments and businesses look to expand new ways to pay, Visa is committed to collaborating with partners to develop and invest in security standards that deliver a safer, secure, and seamless commerce experience.”

The 2019 Asia-Pacific Visa Security Summit is one of the largest payment security events in the region. Held on June 19-20, 2019, it brought together leading risk professionals to share learnings and best practices on payment security innovation.

This year, more than 500 participants gathered to hear how the industry can continue to collaborate in the coming years.