Digital payments are on the rise around the world as the adoption of most forms of digital payments — via websites, apps or in-store platforms — continues to climb. As we look ahead to 2025, the future of payments looks increasingly digital, flexible and driven by consumer choice. Account-to-account (A2A) payments are giving consumers more ways to pay; biometrics are reducing our reliance on passwords and pins; and globalization is forcing change to complex and slow cross-border payments.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) is helping to set new benchmarks for security and usability.
Here are six key trends shaping 2025 payments.
1. AI guards against fraud.
AI will play a crucial role in personalizing payment experiences and enhancing fraud detection capabilities, creating a profound impact on buyers and sellers. We can expect deep learning algorithms to become more sophisticated in analyzing transaction patterns and identifying potential risks in real time.
For more than 30 years, Visa has been at the center of AI in payments, investing $3.3 billion in our AI and data infrastructure over the last decade. This year, we introduced three new AI-powered risk and fraud prevention solutions, as part of the Visa Protect suite, that are designed to reduce fraud across immediate A2A and card-not-present (CNP) payments, as well as transactions on and off Visa’s network.
Using AI responsibly is critical. We’ll continue to prioritize strengthening our AI governance initiatives in 2025 and beyond. That said, the potential for the next generation of AI to transform the payments ecosystem — making it safer, smarter and more seamless — is vast and a critical factor for the success of payment companies and other industries in 2025 and beyond.
2. Digital identity simplifies authentication.
Passwords, security questions, even card numbers have long stood in for individuals, and fraudsters have taken advantage of this fact. That’s changing. Now and increasingly in the future, authentication will more and more rely on highly secure credentials — your face, your fingerprints or other biometrics. This shift will enhance security and convenience, reducing reliance on traditional PINs and passwords. Products like Visa Payment Passkey do precisely that. For instance, Visa has partnered with QNB in Qatar to launch the enhanced version of Visa Click to Pay for retailers, marking the first implementation of biometric authentication in the world, and setting a new standard for secure, seamless and convenient online payments.
Centering biometric markers in payments authentication — and doing so in line with best data privacy, cybersecurity and AI governance practices — helps make the whole chain more convenient and more secure. More and more, the future of commerce has you at the center.
3. Real-time payments gain momentum globally.
In 2025, real-time payment (RTP) momentum will be influenced by developments in the world's largest economies. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve is set to migrate to ISO 20022, an internationally accepted industry standard for the exchange of financial information, in March 2025. This transition is expected to boost the adoption of its RTP FedNow service, enabling instant payments 24/7/365 for financial institutions, businesses and individuals.
In Europe, the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant Credit Transfer Scheme will see widespread adoption, facilitating instant euro transactions across borders within the EU.
While these advancements mark significant progress, challenges remain. Domestic governments attempting to manage RTP networks independently have faced issues such as fraud, security vulnerabilities, availability concerns and lack of cross-border/fx capabilities. Collaborating with the private sector, including companies like Visa, can help overcome these challenges by providing expertise and resources to enhance security, interoperability and cross-border functionality.
The critical task for regulators, policymakers and the broader payments ecosystem is to balance innovation with safeguards, protecting against the risks associated with the instant and irreversible nature of RTP payments. Ensuring that domestic RTP networks are open and interoperable is also key to facilitating trade and global growth.
4. A2A payments get streamlined.
Card-based payments deliver a certain experience, security and protections that non-card payments simply don’t.
But that’s changing.
Electronic payments, like ACH transfers, have largely been excluded from the digital revolution. Products like pay by bank are digitizing and streamlining A2A payments, giving consumers more ways to pay.
And while real-time payments have grown popular and widespread among consumers, they’ve also become fairly popular with fraudsters. Emerging tools like Visa Protect for A2A Payments are rolling out to help mitigate fraud on RTP networks.
5. Embedded finance proliferates.
Embedded finance is where third-party financial products and services are embedded into otherwise non-financial digital platforms. More and more, payment solutions are becoming integrated, particularly into the merchant ecosystem. We’re also seeing an uptick in embedded finance lending products and white-label embedded finance payment solutions.
When done right, it’s a four-way win: providers gain from low-cost distribution; enablers tap into demand for simplicity and convenience; distributors improve platform engagement — and most importantly, end-users get contextualized financial services in one place.
6. Cross-border payments travel fast.
Cross-border money movement has historically been B2B-focused and primarily handled by traditional banks. But globalization and global trade have changed things.
As consumers and small and medium businesses have more need to send money person-to-person around the world, shortcomings in the market – that it’s too complex, costly, opaque and slow – are becoming more obvious.
The expansion of real-time payment networks could revolutionize cross-border payments, but we need interoperable global RTP networks, with mechanisms to process payments in multiple currencies, not siloed, domestic networks that can’t talk to each other. Visa Direct is a great example of a global network for real-time payments that is interoperable, and enables those faster, more cost-effective cross-border capabilities.
More efficient and cost-effective cross-border payment solutions will enable businesses and consumers to transact across borders without the traditional delays and fees while simplifying currency conversions and compliance with local regulations.