Click to Pay: How This Digital Wallet is Changing Online Payments

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The digital age has brought new levels of convenience to consumers the world over. Ecommerce with next-day delivery has revolutionised the way we shop, while streaming services put millions of hours of entertainment content at our fingertips.

But some areas of digital life aren’t always as straightforward as we’d like them to be. In a world where just about everything is instantly available to us, any remaining areas of friction can quickly become frustrating. Take, for example, the necessity to enter card numbers, address details, passwords and so on when making an online transaction.

Now, not all consumers will still experience this frustration. The growing prevalence of Click to Pay means that many are now able to check out in just a few clicks, saving them time and stress. In much of Europe, Click to Pay was mandated by Visa in 2024, meaning issuing banks had to actively make it easy for their cards to be added to the scheme.

By 12th April 2025, issuers in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates will need to support Click to Pay. And by 24th October 2026, South African issuers will also be mandated to support Click to Pay. Those who aren’t ready must prepare quickly.??

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What is Click to Pay?

From a consumer standpoint, it’s straightforward. Once they’ve either signed up themselves, or are signed up by their issuer, they can quickly checkout online in a way that replicates the convenience of a tap-and-go in-store payment. No passwords, no entering card details.

Behind the scenes, it’s a little more complicated. Visa’s EMV Tokenization platform facilitates the payment, replacing card details with a digital token. Rather than the 16-digit number on the physical card, this network token is used throughout the transaction by all players in the value chain, from merchant to Payment Service Provider (PSP) to card network. For each transaction, a separate, unique cryptographic token is also generated.

Tokens adhere to the 3DS 2.0 protocol, which is an authentication method developed by the payment industry and applied to Card Not Present (CNP) transactions. The protocol is used in the issuer domain, the acquirer domain and the payment network domain.

The idea behind it is to provide enhanced security and up-to-date information through the payments value chain while reducing data exposure for cardholders. Visa checks with the issuer to confirm that the card linked to the token is valid, meaning fewer failed transactions and less fraud. Tokenized payments saved $650 million in fraud between 2023 and 2024, according to Visa’s data and authorisation rates climb by more than 3% when tokens are used for CNP payments.

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The benefits of tokenization

As well as a streamlined, frictionless experience for consumers, tokenized payments like those mandated by Visa’s Click to Pay platform have benefits to offer merchants and issuers too. Merchants will see less cart abandonment and by offering a better payment experience, increase their chances of repeat custom and driving loyalty. For small merchants, it gives them a chance to compete on a level playing field with larger competitors.?

For issuers, adopting tokenization should be a priority if they haven’t done so already. Tokenization’s power to reduce fraud, thereby offering greater protection for customers, makes it a no-brainer. Issuers can also give their customers a centralised hub where they can grant or revoke consent for data sharing with merchants, giving them control over their personal information. Again, this is a feature that will boost loyalty.

?When it comes to Click to Pay, issuers that haven’t already signed up must do so sooner rather than later, and they don’t have a choice in the matter. Visa's mandate requires Click to Pay to be a pre-activated, ready-to-use feature on all Visa cards by the dates specified earlier in this article.

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How Paymentology can help

Paymentology offers tokenization solutions for banks and other financial institutions that want to offer their customers mobile wallets, contactless payments and EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) experiences. We support tokenized transactions for all major wallets and payment networks.

Our turnkey APIs don't require you to have any deep tokenization knowledge; you'll be able to implement your tokenization platform quickly and easily, meaning a fast time to market. Paymentology will also do all the heavy lifting when it comes to maintenance, meaning your platform will be kept up to date with the latest TSP services and security standards with minimal effort on your part.

Get in touch today to find out more about how Paymentology can help you develop your tokenization strategy and comply with Visa’s Click to Pay mandate.