Visa Launches CVV-Free Payment Feature For Tokenised Transactions

Right after the RBI approved the ‘Credit on UPI’ system through RuPay credit cards, the global card transaction company Visa, has launched a feature that will allow users to make online payments without the CVV number.

However, this feature is applicable in India only for domestic transactions, and the CVV will be asked only while tokenising the card. This process secures the card details with a unique code and further, the transactions will be done through a two-factor authentication process.

Further, transactions through tokenised cards will not need the 16 digits card number or any other card details. According to a report carried out by The Economic Times, this method of authentication protects a user from cyber fraud as one token can’t be used on another platform. 

Commenting on this, Visa India and South Asia product head Ramakrishnan Gopalan said, “Tokenisation is being adopted in the mainstream ecommerce space well. We are now wanting to make the payment experience faster and more friction-free by removing the CVV. What we are saying now is that in a tokenised card transaction, the role of a CVV is limited and we are working with the industry to remove it.”

Already, merchants such as Zomato and Razorpay are using this CVV-free service offered by Visa.

This service by Visa comes when its other service ‘Visa Safe Click’ has been paused as RBI pushes payment platforms to tighten their security standards amid the increasing cyber fraud cases. The Visa Safe Click service was also launched with the aim to eliminate the need of CVV and OTP authentication for transactions below INR 2000. Though the service has been paused, it has not been withdrawn by the payment initiator. 

Gopalan furthered that if the regulator approves, both services may be merged by Visa.

Recently, credit card management platform Kiwi has raised $6 Mn to offer credit on UPI service. Through this app users can make UPI payments through RuPay credit cards once a user registers. 

In fact, the National Payments Corporation of India has announced that extra charges will not be levied on small merchants for transactions of up to INR 2,000 processed via RuPay credit cards on UPI. 

According to NPCI, the total number of UPI transactions last year jumped 91.11% YoY, and the value of UPI transactions saw a 74.83% year-on-year increase in 2022.