Visa is helping Philippine banks prepare for the rollout of global digital wallets like Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay. In a recent workshop, Visa brought together local banks and regional partners, including Google Southeast Asia, Vietcombank, and Starbucks Vietnam, to share how these wallets were successfully launched in other markets.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recently clarified that these wallets are technology service providers. They must be linked to users’ credit, debit, or e-money accounts. They cannot hold funds directly. This puts banks in charge of enabling access to these services.
Visa’s workshop focused on how banks can integrate and scale these wallets. It also highlighted the role of tokenization, which replaces card numbers with secure digital tokens. This helps protect users from fraud. Visa has issued over 10 billion tokens globally and says fraud rates have dropped by more than half.
Partners from Vietnam shared how xPay adoption increased card usage and improved customer engagement. Google also explained how digital wallets make payments easier and safer.
Visa says the move supports financial inclusion and helps build a secure payment system. With digital payments now making up 57.4% of retail transactions in the Philippines, the country is ahead of its 2024 targets.
