Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Visa, in partnership with Ravnaq-bank and the technology company OCTO, launched the country’s first tokenization solution based on Visa Token Service, an innovative technology that ensures the security of digital transactions of the cardholder, as well as reliable environment for the further development of the payment ecosystem.

The introduction of the technology is an important event for the entire payment industry in Uzbekistan, as tokenization will help accelerate innovation in e-commerce and make payments even more secure and convenient for consumers.

The Visa Token Service tokenization service provides convenience of payments by protecting confidential customer data by replacing it with a unique digital identifier - a token. Since the tokens do not contain the details of the consumer’s payment account, such as the 16-digit card number, CVV code, they can be safely stored in online stores or on mobile devices, which makes e-commerce and payments in merchants safer, primarily for the cardholder (token), as well as for all participants in the payment ecosystem (issuing banks, acquirers).

To activate the service, owners of Android smartphones with NFC1 support need to download or go to the Ravnaq-bank - RBK Mobile application, then, if there are no associated Visa cards, add their Ravnak bank Visa card to the application, or go to the "My cards" menu, select any of the linked Visa cards, click the "Contactless payments" button under the card and follow the instructions for its tokenization. After digitization, cardholders will be able to make contactless payments using their smartphones at retail and service points: they only need to unlock the phone and bring it to the payment terminal.

In addition, global research by Visa shows that with the onset of the pandemic, consumers have favored contactless payments as a safer and faster payment option, among other things, in an effort to minimize physical contact. Almost half of consumers2 (49%) say that the ability to pay without contact is one of the most effective measures for safe shopping that offline retail outlets can offer their customers. At the same time, 65% of consumers note that they will give preference to contactless payments even in the post-COVID period.

“Tokenization is one of the key technologies for the development of the cashless payments industry by providing a secure environment for making payments in both physical retail outlets and e-commerce. We expect that the launch of mobile contactless payments will help us to support the general trend of switching to contactless in the country as a more convenient, secure way to pay and receive payments. This is a global trend, and we are pleased that thanks to the country’s first program based on Visa Token Service, we can help Uzbekistan develop the payment ecosystem in this direction," said Vera Platonova, senior vice president and director of regional development, Visa’s CIS division and Southeast Europe.

“The popularity of mobile payment services in our country is growing rapidly. Therefore, Ravnaq-bank presents to its clients another modern and convenient technology that will greatly simplify the process of paying for goods and services using a smartphone. Your smartphone turns into a universal contactless non-cash payment method. Now it will be possible to make contactless and secure payments all over the world in trade and service organizations equipped with POS-terminals with the option of contactless payment,” said Iskandar Bakhtinurovich Tursunov, Chairman of the Board of Ravnaq-bank.

Visa Token Service provides consumers with a seamless mobile shopping experience at physical point of sale or over the Internet while maintaining the integrity of the Visa payment transaction. Among the main advantages of Visa Token Service:

- Consumer Protection: Tokens replace 16-digit account information on payment cards with a set of numbers. This new identifier is called the digital account number (token). Its task is to simplify payment transactions without providing confidential information of the personal account of the cardholder.

- Usage customization: Tokens can be assigned to specific merchants, cards, and mobile devices. Visa uses specially designed cryptographic protection to control the issuance of the token to the card and the environment in which the token can be used to make a payment, which provides a new level of innovation and security.

- Convenience and minimization of costs: tokens that are tied to lost or stolen mobile devices can be instantly deleted without changing the account number or re-issuing a payment card.

- Simplified data processing: tokens are developed based on existing standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and therefore can be processed in the course of a transaction by merchants, acquirers and issuers like traditional contactless payment cards.