With the introduction of the service in Asia Pacific, consumers and merchants in the region will have access to Real Time VAU across subscription services such as ride-hailing, food delivery and monthly utility payments, amongst others.

Backed by Visa’s technology, Real Time VAU helps merchants solve the issue of declined payments from customers with expired or replaced debit and credit cards by allowing businesses to effortlessly update customers’ stored card details in real time. When a merchant submits a payment, Real Time VAU instantly checks for the latest card details and will transact the payment request with the updated card details, lowering the rates of authorisation declines, lost sales and severed cardholder relationships. Real Time VAU was first launched by Visa in North America in 2017, and in Europe in 2022.

"While card expiration and replacement are necessary as part of fraud protection and card security enhancements, we recognise that consumers often face the unnecessary inconvenience of updating numerous automatic payment arrangements every few years when issued a new card," said T.R. Ramachandran, Head of Products & Solutions, Asia Pacific, Visa. "The launch of Real Time VAU, in collaboration with our partners in Asia Pacific, will streamline this process while continuing to uphold the highest level of security. By providing merchants with the technology, we are empowering them to increase revenue and card authorisation rates, while delivering a seamless payment experience that aligns with what consumers have come to expect today."

Businesses and consumers are increasingly migrating away from cash to electronic and card payments with the proliferation of contactless payments and online services. However, the process of manually updating credentials upon card expiry or upgrade causes frustration in the payments journey. By facilitating the secure exchange of updated account information between participating merchants and Visa card issuers, VAU empowers these merchants to provide a seamless payment experience that fosters customer loyalty and retention, while boosting overall sales revenue.

In Asia Pacific, Visa is partnering with four global payment gateways and acquirers – Adyen, Checkout.com, Stripe and Worldpay – to launch VAU in Asia Pacific. Cybersource, a Visa solution, is also offering VAU to customers to enable more businesses across the region to reap the benefits of VAU. This will especially benefit businesses who offer subscription services, such as ride-hailing apps, merchants in the food delivery and utility space, and more.