Network Tokenisation

Network tokenisation replaces a customer’s primary account number (PAN) with a secure digital token issued by a card network such as Visa or Mastercard. The network token can be used instead of the underlying card number when processing payments, helping merchants improve payment security, reduce fraud and increase authorisation rates.

Network tokens provide issuers with a secure, scheme-recognised payment credential and stronger trust signals than traditional PAN-based transactions. This can help reduce false declines and increase payment acceptance. Visa reports a 4.6% uplift in card-not-present authorisation rates for tokenised transactions compared with PAN transactions, while Mastercard reports an uplift of approximately 2.1%.*

Performance figures are scheme-reported averages and may vary by issuer, geography, card type and merchant profile.

Network tokens can remain valid when the underlying payment card expires, is lost, stolen or replaced. Visa or Mastercard can automatically update the credential associated with the network token, helping merchants reduce failed card-on-file and recurring payments without requiring customers to manually enter new card details.

Network tokenisation can help merchants increase payment authorisation rates, reduce false declines, lower fraud and chargebacks, keep stored payment credentials up to date and reduce the cost of accepting payments. It also provides a secure payment credential that can support emerging experiences such as Click to Pay and agentic commerce.

Yes. Network tokenisation can reduce the overall cost of accepting payments through higher authorisation rates, fewer failed transactions, reduced fraud and fewer unnecessary payment retries. Eligible network-token transactions may also benefit from lower Visa and Mastercard scheme fees.

Payment tokenisation generally replaces sensitive card information with a secure token that can be stored and used instead of the original card number. Network tokenisation goes further by creating a token at the card-network level through schemes such as Visa and Mastercard. Network tokens can benefit from scheme-level lifecycle updates, enhanced security and additional transaction data that can help improve authorisation performance.

An APEXX token is generated within the APEXX payment environment and replaces sensitive card details when merchants process subsequent transactions through APEXX. A network token is issued through a card network such as Visa or Mastercard and represents the underlying payment credential at the scheme level. APEXX supports network tokenisation alongside its existing tokenisation capabilities.

APEXX manages the network token lifecycle on behalf of merchants. APEXX can provision Visa and Mastercard network tokens, manage credential updates and re-tokenisation, and use network tokens across supported acquirers within a merchant’s payment routing strategy. This allows merchants to benefit from network tokenisation without adding unnecessary complexity to their checkout or payment infrastructure.

Yes. With APEXX, network tokens can work across acquirers within a merchant’s payment routing stack. This allows merchants to combine the benefits of network tokenisation with a multi-acquirer payment orchestration strategy, rather than restricting tokenised transactions to a single acquiring provider.

Network tokenisation and payment orchestration work together to improve payment performance. Network tokens provide secure, up-to-date payment credentials, while payment orchestration determines how transactions are processed across different acquirers and payment providers. APEXX combines these capabilities so merchants can optimise payment credentials and transaction routing within the same payment infrastructure.

Tokenisation can help reduce PCI DSS scope by limiting the amount of sensitive card data stored and processed within a merchant’s environment. However, tokenisation does not automatically remove all PCI DSS responsibilities. The exact impact depends on the merchant’s payment architecture and how cardholder data is handled.

Network tokenisation can help reduce card payment fraud because the underlying PAN is replaced with a secure token associated with a specific merchant or payment context. Scheme-reported data indicates lower fraud rates for tokenised transactions compared with traditional PAN-based payments, although actual performance varies by merchant, issuer, geography and card type.*

Performance figures are scheme-reported averages and may vary by issuer, geography, card type and merchant profile.

Network tokens can provide secure digital payment credentials for emerging AI-powered and agentic commerce experiences. As AI agents increasingly help consumers discover products and potentially initiate purchases, secure and trusted ways of representing payment credentials will become increasingly important. Network tokenisation can provide part of the payment infrastructure needed to support these new commerce models.

Visa and Mastercard are accelerating the transition from traditional card credentials towards network tokens. Adopting network tokenisation now can help merchants improve payment performance today while preparing their payment infrastructure for greater token adoption, Click to Pay and emerging agentic commerce experiences.

Merchants can implement network tokenisation through the APEXX Payment Orchestration Platform. APEXX manages token provisioning, lifecycle updates, re-tokenisation and scheme requirements on the merchant’s behalf, helping reduce the development and operational work required to introduce network tokens.