ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Picture this: Members open their credit union mobile app, apply for a credit card, are instantly approved and within minutes begin using their card in their digital wallet.
That fast and seamless process will be coming soon to issuers, announced Visa during PSCU’s Virtual Member Forum, sharing more about how the future of card issuance and card usage will look in the very near future.
Allie Chafey, senior director of U.S. digital products for Visa, told the PSCU virtual audience the days of members having to wait days for cards in the mail—in caes where the CU doesn’t offer in-branch instant issuance--will be long gone as the focus on cards turns much more to “digitizing the engagement.”
“Envision a very seamless process where members are approved and transacting with their favorite merchants almost instantly,” Chafey told the meeting. “Think about this today. I live in San Francisco, and (due to the pandemic) I am using Apple Pay more when I now go out to a local restaurant. This is all about helping your members transact immediately.”
That immediacy is what will help keep the credit union’s card top of wallet, said Chafey.
Noting instant digital issuance—where a card number can be immediately provisioned in a digital wallet—is being offered more often by issuers, the focus for the credit union should be a seamless digital process for the entire card experience, stated Chafey.
“The idea is from application to approval to using the card to reissuing, how can we make your members’ lives easier,” asked Chafey.
Greater Tokenization
For its part, Chafey said Visa will be driving greater use of tokenization, noting the use of tokenization has taken a longer time than expected to take hold.
“It started quite a few years ago with Apple Pay, and then it expanded to Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but tokenization still remains only a small part of the overall card transaction volume,” Chafey explained. “As we head into next year we are really focused on scaling up tokenization, and we are partnering with PSCU on this process. We want tokenization to move from a drop in the transaction bucket to taking a lot of the transactions. Our goal is to tokenize as much of the ecommerce volume as we can, and this is so much more important now as there is a major shift to ecommerce happening.”
The Rise in Fraud
Chafey pointed out, too, that as ecommerce transactions climb quickly, so has fraud in that channel.
“That is why it is critical, now more than ever, that we replace card numbers with tokens,” she said.
Chafey said Visa has a tokenization process for cards on file with Amazon and Netflix and is working to partner with other online services and gateways.
“Let’s work together to secure greater tokenization volume, increase the overall digital payments volume, and at the end of the day make the card experience a lot easier for your members,” Chafey said.
Chafey added Visa is also working to make the guest checkout process—when cards are not on file with a restaurant or retailer, for example—smoother and more seamless. She explained Visa and other card processing networks are developing a more standard guest checkout experience.