India has emerged as the world's most tokenised market for online card payments, with more than 900 million payment tokens currently in circulation, according to Suresh Sethi, Group Country Manager for India and South Asia at Visa.
Speaking at the launch of Visa Payment Passkey in Mumbai on Thursday, Sethi highlighted the rapid evolution of India's digital payments ecosystem, saying the country has moved beyond expanding access and scale and is now entering a new phase centred on enhancing trust, security and user experience.
"Today, India is the world's most tokenised market for online card payments with more than 900 million payment tokens and almost 500 million Visa tokens as part of that," Sethi said during the event.
He noted that widespread smartphone adoption and growing internet connectivity have brought hundreds of millions of Indians into the formal digital economy, accelerating the country's transition toward electronic payments. According to him, India's digital payments journey has unfolded in three distinct stages, each building on the achievements of the previous phase.
Sethi explained that the first phase focused on financial inclusion through the government's Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity, which laid the foundation for broader access to banking and digital financial services. The second phase was driven by scale, supported by initiatives such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), card tokenisation and the rapid expansion of digital payment acceptance across merchants, making cashless transactions a mainstream part of everyday life.
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According to Sethi, India is now entering the third phase of its digital payments transformation, where strengthening consumer trust and improving the security of digital transactions have become the primary focus.
He credited the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for creating a progressive regulatory framework that has significantly enhanced the safety of digital payments. He pointed to tokenisation as one of the strongest examples of how regulatory measures have improved payment security by reducing the exposure of sensitive card information during online transactions.
"The Reserve Bank of India's progressive regulatory framework has played a very instrumental role in strengthening the security of digital payments. Tokenisation is a very powerful example," Sethi said.
He further noted that the RBI's evolving regulations have enabled the adoption of alternative methods for additional factor authentication, moving beyond traditional one-time passwords (OTPs). According to him, this marks the beginning of the next phase in India's digital payments ecosystem, where authentication will become both more secure and more convenient.
As part of this transition, Visa unveiled its new Visa Payment Passkey solution, which allows consumers to authenticate online card transactions using biometric authentication methods such as fingerprint or facial recognition, as well as secure device credentials like PINs or unlock patterns, instead of relying solely on OTPs.
Sethi explained that the technology is built on globally recognised FIDO (Fast Identity Online) standards and is designed to provide stronger protection against increasingly common threats such as OTP phishing and social engineering attacks. At the same time, it aims to simplify the payment experience by reducing friction during online purchases.
"It enables consumers to authenticate transactions by using the secure capabilities already built into the device they use every day, whether through fingerprint, facial recognition, device PIN or pattern. This strengthens protection against risks arising from OTP phishing while improving the overall user experience," he said.
Looking ahead, Sethi said the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence is set to reshape digital commerce, making robust authentication systems even more critical. As AI-powered assistants, smart devices and connected ecosystems begin playing a larger role in initiating and completing commercial transactions, payment security frameworks will need to evolve to support these emerging technologies.
He added that future authentication systems must be secure, seamless and resilient enough to support an increasingly AI-driven commerce environment while maintaining consumer confidence and protecting users against evolving cyber threats.
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