What is Visa's role in the digital payments transformation?
Visa is a card network extending onto other rails. In fiscal 2025 (the year to September 30, 2025), 329 billion payments and cash transactions carried Visa's brand, 258 billion of them processed by Visa, against 303 billion and 234 billion in fiscal 2024; total payments and cash volume was $17 trillion, and nearly 5 billion Visa credentials could be used at more than 175 million merchant locations. Growth continued into fiscal 2026: Visa processed 71.7 billion transactions in the quarter to June 30, 2026, up 10%, with payments volume up 10% and cross-border volume up 13% on a constant-dollar basis. The way people pay is changing on the network: Tap to Pay made up 79% of face-to-face transactions globally and 66% in the U.S. in fiscal 2025, and Visa had provisioned more than 16 billion tokens by September 30, 2025. Beyond cards, Visa Direct processed more than 12.5 billion transactions in fiscal 2025, Visa A2A launched in the UK, and stablecoin settlement reached an annualized run rate of about $7 billion as of March 2026. AI enters as protection on faster rails: Visa says A2A Protect increased fraud detection by 75% in its first six months.[1][2][3][4][5]
Data as of Oct 19, 2026 · Visa profile updated Oct 19, 2026 · 19 sources cited on this page · 52 fintechs profiled on this site · Markdown
How much does Visa's network carry, and how fast is it growing?
From Visa's 10-K filings and quarterly earnings releases (8-K Exhibit 99.1). Visa's fiscal year ends September 30; growth rates are on a constant-dollar basis where Visa reports them that way.
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Payments and cash transactions with Visa's brand | 329 billion, 258 billion of them processed by Visa; an average of 901 million a day | Fiscal 2025[1] |
| Payments and cash transactions with Visa's brand | 303 billion, 234 billion of them processed by Visa; an average of 829 million a day | Fiscal 2024[2] |
| Total payments and cash volume | $17 trillion (fiscal 2025); $16 trillion (fiscal 2024) | Fiscal 2024–2025[1][2] |
| Nominal payments volume | $13,894 billion against $12,988 billion a year earlier; up 7% nominal and 8% constant-dollar | Twelve months to June 30, 2025[1] |
| Credentials and merchant locations | Nearly 5 billion credentials and more than 175 million merchant locations (fiscal 2025); 4.6 billion and more than 150 million (fiscal 2024) | Fiscal 2024–2025[1][2] |
| Processed transactions by quarter | 67.7 billion (up 10%); 69.4 billion (up 9%); 66.1 billion (up 9%); 71.7 billion (up 10%) | Fiscal Q4 2025 to Q3 2026[6][7][8][3] |
| Payments volume growth by quarter | 9%, 8%, 9% and 10% | Fiscal Q4 2025 to Q3 2026[6][7][8][3] |
| Total cross-border volume growth by quarter | 12%, 12%, 12% and 13% | Fiscal Q4 2025 to Q3 2026[6][7][8][3] |
| Net revenue by quarter | $10.7 billion (up 12%); $10.9 billion (up 15%); $11.2 billion (up 17%); $11.6 billion (up 14%) | Fiscal Q4 2025 to Q3 2026[6][7][8][3] |
| Visa Direct | More than 12.5 billion transactions for more than 650 partners (fiscal 2025); nearly 10 billion for more than 550 partners (fiscal 2024) | Fiscal 2024–2025[1][2] |
How is the way people pay on Visa's network changing?
| Shift | What Visa reports | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Tap to Pay | 65% penetration globally at the end of 2023; over 80% of face-to-face transactions outside the U.S. and over 50% in the U.S. in fiscal 2024; 79% globally and 66% in the U.S. in fiscal 2025 | 2023–2025[9][2][1] |
| Transit | More than 2.0 billion contactless transit transactions and 870-plus projects (fiscal 2024); more than 2.4 billion and 1,000-plus projects (fiscal 2025) | Fiscal 2024–2025[2][1] |
| Tap to Phone | Up 200% over the year to March 2025; more than 20 million transacting devices in fiscal 2025 | 2025[10][1] |
| Tokens | More than 10 billion issued since 2014, with 29% of transactions processed by Visa tokenized (June 2024); more than 16 billion provisioned by September 30, 2025 | 2024–2025[11][1] |
| Token results | Visa says tokens generated more than $40 billion in incremental e-commerce revenue and saved $650 million in fraud in the prior year, and raised approval rates by six basis points | June 4, 2024[11] |
| Tap to Add Card | More than 600 issuers participating, live for more than 1.4 billion Visa credit and debit cards | Fiscal 2025[1] |
| Passkeys | Visa Payment Passkey Service, built on FIDO standards, deployed first inside Click to Pay | May 15, 2024[9] |
| Mobile e-commerce in Europe | Mobile payments are 59% of e-commerce transactions in Europe, expected to reach 75% by 2030, per Visa research | March 19, 2026[12] |
Which non-card rails does Visa run or connect to?
The FY2025 10-K calls this Visa's "network of networks" strategy: a single connection point for money movement regardless of which network starts or completes the transaction.
| Rail | Visa's role | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Visa Direct | Potential reach of about 12 billion endpoints through more than 90 domestic payment schemes and more than 60 card and wallet networks, across more than 195 countries and territories | Fiscal 2025[1] |
| Visa A2A (UK pay by bank) | Pay by bank with card-like protections and dispute rules, settling through Pay.UK's Faster Payment System; ready for market on June 2, 2025 and launched in fiscal 2025 | 2025[13][1] |
| Tink open banking | Thousands of bank connections as of September 30, 2025; no payment volumes disclosed | Fiscal 2025[1] |
| Stablecoin-linked cards | More than $100 billion of crypto and stablecoin purchases facilitated since 2020 and more than $35 billion spent through crypto-linked credentials; more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs live or in development by June 2026 | 2025–2026[1][4] |
| Stablecoin settlement | Annualized run rate above $2.5 billion (September 30, 2025), above $3.5 billion (November 30, 2025) and about $7 billion (March 2026); USDC settlement for U.S. banks from December 16, 2025, first with Cross River Bank and Lead Bank on Solana | 2025–2026[1][14][4] |
| Tokenized deposits | Visa will build the technology layer that lets banks turn deposits into programmable, always-on digital money | June 10, 2026[4] |
| Core banking and issuer processing | Pismo provides cloud-native core banking and issuer processing, including connectivity to real-time payment networks | Fiscal 2025[1] |
How does Visa frame the shift, where does AI come in, and what is not disclosed?
The FY2025 10-K sizes the opportunity at more than $40 trillion of addressable consumer spend, of which Visa pursues more than $20 trillion still in cash, check, legacy ACH, account-to-account and real-time payments, plus about $200 trillion of annual payment flows in commercial and money movement.[1]
AI appears where Visa ties it to faster rails. Visa says A2A Protect increased fraud detection by 75% in its first six months and cites a projection that A2A transactions will pass 5.8 trillion by 2028; its 2024 Pay.UK pilot found 54% of fraudulent transactions that had already passed UK banks' fraud systems. The AI products are on the companion page.[5][15]
Tokens are also the base for AI agents: the FY2025 10-K says Visa's token infrastructure enables expansion into agentic commerce and that a 2025 pilot processed live agentic token transactions.[1]
What is not disclosed: Visa A2A and Tink payment volumes, the tokenized share of transactions after June 2024, stablecoin settlement as a share of all settlement, and agentic transaction volumes. The tap and token figures use different bases, so they are not one series.[1][11][4]
What does the Visa profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the Visa AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 19, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 15 dated moves, 8 use cases and 22 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa Intelligent Commerce | APIs, tokenized credentials and spend controls that let AI agents discover, initiate and complete purchases; hundreds of controlled real-world transactions and closed-beta pilots by December 2025, with Intelligent Commerce Connect in pilot from April 2026. | Pilot | [16][17][18] |
| A2A Protect (with Featurespace) | Real-time risk scoring for account-to-account payments using transfer learning and network-level signals; Visa says it increased fraud detection by 75% in the first six months of deployment, and the September 2026 version adds a unified Featurespace-based score with plain-language alert explanations. | In production | [5] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | A2A Protect adds first Featurespace-based unified score | Visa launches an enhanced A2A Protect with a unified fraud score, its first in-market integration of Featurespace technology; each alert carries a plain-language explanation of why a payment was flagged. | [5] |
| Apr 29, 2026 | Agentic Ready programme expands globally | The programme for issuers to test agent-initiated payments with live cards and real merchants, already live with more than 20 partners in the UK and Europe, extends to 85+ partners in Asia Pacific and Latin America. | [19] |
| Apr 8, 2026 | Intelligent Commerce Connect unveiled | A single integration through the Visa Acceptance Platform that lets agent builders and merchants accept agent payments across Trusted Agent Protocol, Machine Payments Protocol, Agentic Commerce Protocol and Universal Commerce Protocol, including non-Visa cards; in pilot with partners including AWS and Highnote. | [18] |
How many transactions does Visa process?
In fiscal 2025, the year to September 30, 2025, 329 billion payments and cash transactions carried Visa's brand, an average of 901 million a day, and Visa itself processed 258 billion of them. In the quarter to June 30, 2026 Visa processed 71.7 billion transactions, up 10% from a year earlier.
What share of Visa transactions are contactless?
Visa's FY2025 10-K says Tap to Pay made up 79% of all face-to-face transactions globally and 66% in the United States in fiscal 2025. In fiscal 2024 more than 80% of face-to-face transactions outside the U.S. were contactless, and U.S. penetration had passed 50%.
How many Visa tokens are there?
Visa had provisioned more than 16 billion tokens as of September 30, 2025, per its FY2025 10-K. In June 2024, when it passed 10 billion, it said 29% of all transactions it processed used tokens and that tokens had saved $650 million in fraud over the prior year.
Does Visa settle in stablecoins?
Yes. Visa's stablecoin settlement passed a $3.5 billion annualized run rate by November 30, 2025, and on December 16, 2025 it opened USDC settlement to U.S. banks, starting with Cross River Bank and Lead Bank on Solana. By March 2026 the run rate was about $7 billion.
What is Visa A2A?
Visa A2A is Visa's pay-by-bank service in the UK, ready for market on June 2, 2025. It adds Visa's consumer protections and dispute rules to bank transfers for bills and subscriptions, settles through Pay.UK's Faster Payment System, and is planned to expand into e-commerce. Visa has not published volumes.
- Visa Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025
- Visa Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024
- Visa Reports Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Visa Announces New AI, Stablecoin and Token Innovations to Power Intelligent, Programmable Commerce at Visa Payments Forum
- Visa Launches Enhanced A2A Protect Innovations to Help Financial Institutions Stop Fraud Before Money Leaves Accounts
- Visa Reports Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Visa Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2026 Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Visa Reports Fiscal Second Quarter 2026 Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Visa Reinvents the Card, Unveils New Products for Digital Age
- Visa Tap to Phone Adoption Soars: 200% Year-over-Year Growth Worldwide
- Visa Issues 10 Billionth Token, Generating $40 Billion in Incremental E-commerce Globally
- Visa launches Visa Intelligent Authorisation to modernise payment processing in Europe
- Visa brings Smarter Pay by Bank with Built-In Consumer Protections to the UK Market
- Visa Launches Stablecoin Settlement in the United States, Marking a Breakthrough for Stablecoin Integration
- Visa's new AI tool for Faster Payments could help save UK over £330m a year on fraud and APP scams
- The Future is Here: Visa Announces New Era of Commerce Featuring AI
- Visa and Partners Complete Secure AI Transactions, Setting the Stage for Mainstream Adoption in 2026
- Visa Opens the Door to AI-Driven Shopping for Businesses Worldwide
- Visa Announces Global Expansion of Agentic Ready Program
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