Payment Tokenization, 2020–2026: From Security Feature to Infrastructure

A retrospective on payment tokenization from 2020 to 2026: network tokens, card-on-file rules and what merchants should verify with providers. This article is part of a dated retrospective series covering 2020 to 2026. It describes key trends and widely used approaches from that period; it is not a ranking, and no provider is presented as superior to another. Where a fact cannot be confirmed from an official or authoritative source, it is marked as not publicly disclosed rather than guessed.

What changed between 2020 and 2026

Tokenization — replacing card numbers with surrogate values — shifted between 2020 and 2026 from a security feature to shared infrastructure. Card networks pushed network tokens that update automatically when cards are reissued, reducing failed recurring payments. India's card-on-file tokenization directions went further, prohibiting merchants and providers from storing actual card numbers and forcing a migration to tokens. Merchants learned to ask who owns the token, because a token locked to one provider is a switching cost in disguise.

Widely used approaches

Widely used approaches included provider-agnostic token vaults for merchants working with multiple providers, network tokenization where available for its lifecycle benefits, and clear migration planning when changing providers so that stored credentials remain usable. Another was treating token portability as a contract question, not just a technical one, before signing with a provider.

What this means for merchants in Asia

When evaluating providers, verify in official documentation whether they support network tokens, how tokens are provisioned and updated, and — critically — what happens to your stored credentials if you leave. A provider's answer to the portability question tells you a great deal about the relationship. Where portability terms are not published, record them as not publicly disclosed and get them in the contract.

How to verify the current facts

Payment facts age quickly. Fees, coverage, licensing and technical capabilities change, and any article — including this one — is a snapshot. Before acting on anything here, check the primary sources directly. The authoritative references for this topic, with their publication or update dates, are:

- EMVCo — payment tokenization specifications — https://www.emvco.com/emv-technologies/payment-tokenisation/ (publication: ongoing) - Reserve Bank of India — card-on-file tokenization directions — https://www.rbi.org.in/ (publication: 2021–2022 directions)

When you evaluate a specific provider, ask for their official documentation and check its date. If a provider does not publish a detail you need, the honest entry is that it is not publicly disclosed — treat undisclosed fields as unknowns in your comparison, not as zeros or as confirmations.

About this retrospective series

This series covers the payment topics that mattered most to Asian online businesses between 2020 and 2026. Each article is dated deliberately: it describes what changed during that window and which questions remain worth asking, rather than presenting a timeless verdict that would silently go stale. We do not rank providers, we do not publish statistics without an official source, and we do not repeat claims from competitor blogs or vendor marketing without checking them against primary documentation. Where the public record is silent on a detail, we say so. The series is maintained by our editorial desk and each piece carries the date of its most recent review, so you can judge for yourself how current the framing is. If you spot a claim that has aged badly or a source link that no longer resolves, our corrections process exists for exactly that reason, and we would rather fix a dated article than leave it quietly wrong. Accuracy compounds; so does neglect.

Related reading

- [Payment gateway directory](https://igamingsolutionasia.com/payment-gateways) - [Payment solutions category](https://igamingsolutionasia.com/category/payment-solutions) - [Provider directory](https://igamingsolutionasia.com/providers) - [Editorial hub](https://igamingsolutionasia.com/blog)

This article was prepared by the iGaming Solutions Asia Editorial Team and reviewed by the iGaming Solutions Asia Content QA Team. It contains no sponsored placements, no provider rankings and no fabricated statistics. Figures and regulatory details belong to the linked official sources, which publish the current versions.