Visa updates payment security roadmap in Phl

Global digital payments platform Visa launched a series of new payment security measures in the Philippines to help fight cybercrime, protect the payments ecosystem, and keep consumers and businesses safe.

Jeff Navarro, country manager for the Philippines and Guam at Visa, said that the new security measures are part of Visa’s updated Security Roadmap for the Philippines.

The roadmap is designed to provide enhanced protection for transactions made online and at physical retailers.

“At Visa, security is our highest priority and we invest heavily to preserve and enhance the security of every Visa transaction to ensure consumers and businesses are protected. As the payments landscape evolves, so do the threats, and that’s why I’m pleased to introduce our updated Security Roadmap which sets out the steps we will be taking in collaboration with our partners to continue to secure the payments ecosystem in the Philippines,” Navarro said.

Data from Visa’s latest Consumer Payment Attitudes Study conducted in August to September 2021, showed that among Filipino consumers who were surveyed, there is high awareness of biometric payment authentication at 80 percent, with more than half at 60 percent believing it is a safer way to pay.

While current ownership of digital identities in the Philippines is low at 11 percent, about one-third are familiar with the concept or 35 percent and interest among non-owners at 70 percent is relatively high.

“When looking to the future of security, Visa believes that focusing on digital identities and the authentication of a consumer’s identity, will be key to mitigating new threats as more commerce shifts to digital channels. Visa calls the industry to act on digital identity and its use for authentication,” Navarro said.

In an interview with reporters, Visa chief risk officer of Southeast Asia Louis Smith stressed the need to step up the fight against fraudsters and scammers amid the increased adoption of digitalization due to the impact of the global health pandemic.

Visa continually evolves to deliver data-based, securityfocused solutions that reduce fraud and protect the payments ecosystem.

Smith said Visa has invested $9 billion globally over the last five years to boost cybersecurity and combat fraud.

Visa uses artificial intelligence/data-driven solutions to identify, investigate, disrupt and prevent attacks targeting the global payments ecosystem, providing strategic security expertise and a comprehensive protection against emerging security threats.

For one, Smith said its Visa Advanced Authorization analyzes more than 500 data elements to generate a risk score for each transaction, a move that has helped banks prevent an estimated $26 billion in fraud globally in fiscal year 2021.

With Southeast Asian consumers living increasingly digital lifestyles, the use of biometrics, fingerprint or facial recognition, and digital identities, is growing in popularity.

According to Smith, Visa is satisfied with the investments of partner banks in the Philippines to keep merchants and consumers safe from fraud and scams as more Filipinos embrace digitalization due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think the institutions in the Philippines can be very proud of the amount of investments they are making into keeping thinks safe here,” Smith said.

Smith pointed out that the roadmap launched in the Philippines is part of a wider initiative running across Asia Pacific.

“What I’m seeing is that fraud and cybersecurity is being controlled very well in the Philippines. I think that the issuer and acquirer partners are doing everything they can and so does Visa,” Smith added.

According to Smith, incidents of credit card have reached a record low in the Philippines amid the initiatives of the industry as well as the introduction of tokenization in the country to secure the sensitive data such as the 16-digit credit card number of consumers.

“In the Philippines, card fraud is at record low and is consistently down,” Smith said.

Under the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas aims to shift 50 percent of total retail transactions to electronic channels and increase the number of Filipino adults with bank accounts to 70 percent by 2023.