Visa’s ‘Scan to Pay’ Supercharges QR and Digital Wallet Payments Across Asia Pacific

QR code payments and digital wallets just got a major boost in Asia Pacific. Visa has officially switched on its new “Scan to Pay” QR payment solution across the region, promising millions of merchants the ability to accept Visa payments through customers’ favorite digital wallets and payment apps – all by scanning a simple QR code. ^[1]

Below is a detailed look at what’s launching today, why it matters, and the strategic questions marketers, merchants, and fintech teams should be asking.

Key Takeaways

Visa Scan to Pay is now live across Asia Pacific, enabling millions of merchants to accept Visa via QR codes using major digital wallets and bank apps. ^[2]
The rollout sits inside a broader Visa Pay ecosystem, connecting wallets like Samsung Wallet, LINE Pay, VNPT Money, Woori Card, Hyundai Card and several regional QR providers to Visa’s global network. ^[3]
The launch lands in a region where QR and local e‑wallets (Alipay, WeChat Pay, GrabPay, GCash, Paytm, PhonePe, etc.) already dominate everyday payments, raising the question: is Visa innovating, or just catching up? ^[4]
New data shows digital wallets now fund roughly one‑third of global transactions, and in some Asian markets, mobile wallets already power about 35% of in‑store payments. ^[5]
The launch is tightly linked to Singapore FinTech Festival 2025, where Visa is also showcasing AI‑driven “Intelligent Commerce” and a stablecoin settlement pilot with Nium – hinting at a bigger strategy around the future of digital money. ^[6]

Visa Scan to Pay Goes Live Across Asia Pacific

Visa confirmed that Scan to Pay is now available across multiple Asia Pacific markets, giving merchants the ability to accept Visa payments by letting customers tap, scan, or pay online using the wallets they already use daily. ^[7]

According to Visa and multiple regional reports, the rollout:

Links millions of merchants in Asia Pacific to Visa’s global network. ^[8]
Allows QR code payments via major digital wallets and banking apps, rather than requiring dedicated card terminals. ^[9]
Is being presented as a key part of Visa Pay, a broader framework that connects participating digital wallets to Visa‑accepting merchants worldwide across in‑store and online channels. ^[10]

At the Singapore FinTech Festival 2025 (SFF), running November 12–14, Visa is highlighting Scan to Pay alongside its AI‑powered Visa Intelligent Commerce platform and a stablecoin settlement pilot – positioning the launch as part of a much larger push into next‑generation payments. ^[11]

Today’s Fresh Coverage: Korea, Regional Media and Industry Press

Although Visa’s core announcement dropped on November 12, a wave of coverage dated November 13, 2025 is framing how the story is being interpreted today:

Maeil Business Newspaper (MK), Korea reports that “Visa Pay will allow consumers to easily make online payments through their preferred wallets and payment apps”, stressing that Scan to Pay formally begins full‑scale service in the Asia Pacific region from today (local time). ^[12]
MK highlights partnerships with Woori Card, Hyundai Card and Samsung Wallet, along with other QR operators in Asia, saying Visa’s global network will let consumers “pay anywhere with confidence” and help merchants quickly accept payments from overseas visitors using digital wallets. ^[13]
Regional and trade outlets such as IBS Intelligence, The Asian Banker, Mini Me Insights and others are also reporting that millions of merchants across Asia Pacific can now accept Visa via QR, with a consistent message around “seamless, secure and flexible” payments and cross‑border convenience. ^[14]

This mix of Korean mainstream coverage plus fintech and marketing trade analysis is exactly the kind of content Google News and Discover tend to surface for readers tracking mobile payments, QR codes and Visa.

Who’s Involved: Wallets, Banks and QR Providers

Visa’s own release and industry reporting outline a broad network of partners that are already live or part of the initial rollout: ^[15]

Digital wallets & bank apps
- Samsung Wallet across eight markets (Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Taiwan, Vietnam)
- LINE Pay (Taiwan)
- VNPT Money (Vietnam)
- Woori Card and Hyundai Card (Korea)
Regional QR and payments providers
- Lakala (Mainland China)
- FOMO Pay (Singapore)
- VNPAY and NextPay (Vietnam)
- OpenRice (Hong Kong)

Merchants can plug Scan to Pay into existing QR infrastructure, rather than buying new hardware, which is core to Visa’s pitch around lower processing costs and faster onboarding. ^[16]

QR Codes + Digital Wallets: A Convergence Reaching Critical Mass

Visa’s move lands in the middle of a structural shift in how people pay.

A new PYMNTS Intelligence analysis finds that: ^[17]

QR code payments are spreading globally, with mobile‑first consumers making scanning a habitual way to pay.
Digital wallets now fund about one‑third of all transactions worldwide, pulling spend away from physical cards and cash.
More than 30% of shoppers now use mobile wallets in stores weekly, more than double the share from a year ago.
In‑store, digital wallets (11.8%) have nearly caught up with cash (12.1%) in recent transaction share.
Across 11 countries studied, mobile wallets already account for about 21% of in‑store transactions, and in leaders like Singapore and Japan they power roughly 35% of in‑store purchases.

Asia Pacific has long been the testbed for this convergence. QR codes were invented in Japan in 1994 by Denso Wave and later became a low‑cost way to exchange information and trigger payments – perfect for smartphone‑driven markets with dense small‑merchant ecosystems. ^[18]

Because QR codes require no specialist payment terminal – just a printed code and a phone camera – they’ve allowed micro‑merchants, street vendors and small retailers to leapfrog card terminals entirely.

Asia Pacific: The World’s QR Payments Laboratory

One thing nearly every analysis agrees on: Visa is entering a QR market that Asia Pacific has already built and scaled without it.

Marketing Tech News puts it bluntly: QR payment adoption across APAC “happened years ago,” led by Alipay and WeChat Pay in China, and by regional giants like GrabPay, Touch ’n Go eWallet, GCash, Paytm and PhonePe in Southeast and South Asia. ^[19]

In many markets:

Consumers jumped straight from cash to QR wallets, often skipping plastic cards as a primary payment method.
Domestic instant‑payment and QR schemes – such as PromptPay (Thailand), DuitNow (Malaysia), and other ASEAN integrated QR systems – have turned scan‑to‑pay into the default behavior for everyday spending. ^[20]
These platforms don’t just process payments; they fold in messaging, super‑apps, ride‑hailing, food delivery and embedded finance, making them powerful ecosystems rather than simple wallets. ^[21]

Seen through that lens, Visa Scan to Pay is:

Less about “inventing” QR payments
More about plugging Visa’s card rails into QR ecosystems that already own consumer behavior

That explains why some of the biggest local QR players are missing from Visa’s partner list. The likes of Alipay, WeChat Pay, GrabPay, Paytm and PhonePe have little incentive to become on‑ramps for Visa transactions when they already dominate domestic spend and have their own cross‑border ambitions. ^[22]

What Changes for Consumers?

For everyday users, Visa’s Scan to Pay isn’t about learning something new – it’s about adding more flexibility and reach to what they’re already doing:

Use the wallet you already have
Consumers can pay by scanning Visa‑branded QR codes with participating wallets and bank apps they already trust, rather than juggling multiple payment apps. ^[23]
Tap, scan or buy online with one credential
The broader Visa Pay framework is aimed at letting people tap a phone, scan a QR code or pay online using the same stored Visa credential across borders. ^[24]
Improved cross‑border experience
When travelling, Scan to Pay should, in theory, let you pay at a foreign merchant using your home‑country wallet, while the transaction still rides Visa’s network. That meshes with broader regional efforts to link QR schemes and fast‑payment systems across ASEAN and beyond. ^[25]
Security and dispute processes
Transactions still benefit from Visa’s global security, chargeback and dispute‑resolution frameworks, which is a differentiator versus purely domestic QR schemes in some markets. ^[26]

In Korea, for example, MK’s coverage stresses that Visa’s network “guarantees safe and stable transactions,” letting consumers pay “anywhere with confidence” through familiar apps like Samsung Wallet or local bank wallets. ^[27]

What Changes for Merchants?

For merchants already juggling multiple QR schemes, the value proposition is more nuanced.

Upside for merchants:

One more way to get paid
Merchants can use existing QR infrastructure to accept Visa payments from tourists and locals who prefer paying via international‑brand wallets and bank apps.
No new hardware required
Since Scan to Pay is QR‑based, there’s no need to install expensive card terminals – a big plus for micro and small businesses. ^[28]
Potentially lower costs for some use cases
Routing transactions over QR rails with tokenized credentials could, in principle, be cheaper or more flexible than traditional card‑present infrastructure, depending on Visa’s pricing versus local schemes.

Questions and trade‑offs:

Marketing Tech News warns that some of Visa’s promises deserve scrutiny: ^[29]

“Millions of merchants” may mostly be existing Visa‑accepting merchants gaining one more method, not entirely new businesses coming into digital acceptance.
Claims of “reduced costs” only hold if Visa’s QR economics meaningfully undercut domestic QR schemes – something not yet disclosed.
Many merchants already support local QR codes that consumers love; adding Visa QR means another integration, reconciliation flow and fee structure.

For global brands operating across APAC, the sensible next step is to watch transaction data, not just press releases:

Do Visa Scan to Pay transactions grow meaningfully vs existing card and QR volumes?
Are cross‑border QR transactions rising where tourists previously faced friction?
Do merchants actually see lower blended payment costs?

Is Visa Too Late to the QR Party?

One of the sharpest takes on today’s news comes from the Marketing Tech News analysis, which asks outright if Visa has “finally joined Asia Pacific’s QR payment party – but is it too late?” ^[30]

Their argument, in essence:

QR domination already happened in the 2010s, led by super‑apps and domestic schemes, not card networks.
Visa’s new product retrofits its rails onto behaviors that displaced traditional card payments years ago.
The company has secured solid partnerships – but largely with bank wallets, telecom‑adjacent apps and smaller regional players, not the platforms that own the highest‑volume consumer relationships. ^[31]
This looks more like a defensive strategy to stay relevant in markets where card‑present transactions have become secondary.

That doesn’t mean Scan to Pay can’t succeed. It does mean:

The gap between “goes live” and “wins meaningful market share” may be wide – and will depend on pricing, incentives, UX, and how aggressively Visa and its partners promote the option at checkout.

Bigger Picture: AI, Stablecoins and Agentic Commerce

Scan to Pay isn’t dropping in isolation.

Around the same time, Visa has also:

Expanded “Visa Intelligent Commerce” across Asia Pacific, preparing to pilot AI‑agent‑powered commerce by early 2026 – where AI agents could make purchases on behalf of users using Visa credentials, with new trust and control layers for merchants.
Joined with Nium in a stablecoin settlement pilot, allowing selected cross‑border payments to settle in approved stablecoins rather than traditional correspondent banking rails, with the goal of faster, more programmable money movement.

Combine those with Scan to Pay and a clear pattern emerges:

QR is the “last mile” UX – how people physically confirm a transaction.
AI and stablecoins are the “deep infrastructure” – how transactions are initiated and settled behind the scenes.
Visa Pay and Scan to Pay are the connective tissue, linking digital wallets, AI agents, and merchants into one network where Visa’s credentials remain central.

For Google Discover audiences following AI, crypto and fintech, today’s Scan to Pay coverage neatly ties into this broader story: Visa is working to ensure its rails stay critical even as both user interfaces (QR, super‑apps, AI agents) and underlying settlement layers (stablecoins, faster payments) evolve.

What to Watch Next

Over the coming months, key signals to monitor will include:

Adoption metrics, not just partner lists
- What share of in‑store and in‑app transactions in APAC actually flows through Visa Scan to Pay versus domestic QR schemes?
- Do we see measurable lift in transaction volumes in markets where Visa historically lagged?
Cross‑border QR success stories
- Are travellers using their home wallets to scan Visa QR abroad – and do merchants see that as incremental revenue?
Merchant economics
- If Visa can prove that leveraging its QR rails + global tokenization lowers fraud and total acceptance costs, it could win over merchants even in QR‑saturated markets.
Integration with AI agents and stablecoin rails
- Watch how Scan to Pay appears in future Visa Intelligent Commerce pilots and whether AI‑driven purchase flows end in QR codes, NFC taps, or entirely invisible background payments.

As of November 13, 2025, Visa’s Scan to Pay launch marks a pivotal – if somewhat late – attempt by a global card network to truly embed itself in Asia Pacific’s QR‑first, wallet‑centric payment reality. Whether it becomes a core part of how people pay, or just another logo on crowded QR stands, will be decided not by announcements from Singapore FinTech Festival – but by the everyday choices of merchants and consumers from Seoul to Singapore to Sydney.

QR Payments with Visa

Watch this video on YouTube.

References