GCash to Enhance QR Payments with Linked Visa Cards

MANILA, Philippines – GCash users will soon be able to fund QR payments directly using eligible Visa cards, reducing the need to transfer money or top up their mobile wallets before making purchases. Under the upcoming “link-and-pay” feature, users may connect a credit or debit card to their GCash account and select it as the funding source when scanning a merchant’s QR code. At present, users without enough GCash balance generally need to cash in from a linked bank account or transfer funds from another financial institution before completing a payment. Visa and GCash did not provide an exact launch date or specify which Visa cards would initially be eligible for the service. The companies said transactions would be protected by Visa Payment Passkey, which allows customers to verify purchases using their device’s fingerprint scanner, facial recognition system, or PIN instead of passwords or one-time passwords sent through text messages. The authentication technology is based on Fast Identity Online standards designed to make transactions less vulnerable to phishing and other forms of online fraud. Visa said biometric authentication could reduce fraud rates by as much as 50% compared with SMS-based one-time passwords. “This exciting collaboration expands that flexibility for consumers, allowing consumers to use their Visa credentials across everyday digital payment journeys including QR payments,” Visa Philippines country manager Jeffrey Navarro said. “This new feature further enhances the GCash experience for millions of Filipinos, giving them greater freedom in how they pay and manage their funds while maintaining the experience they’ve come to expect from GCash,” said Ren-Ren Reyes, president and CEO of G-Xchange Incorporated , which is the mobile wallet operator of GCash. This comes as the Philippines increasingly embraces digital payments as the norm. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), digital transactions accounted for 57.4% of monthly retail-payment volume and 59.0% of value in 2024, both above the government’s targets – Rappler.com