Over the last several decades, the worldwide subscription business has expanded as customers have continued to adopt recurring payments as a simple way to manage their goods and services.

According to Juniper Research, the retail, culinary, and entertainment sectors now provide subscription services, which are projected to reach a significant US$406 billion by 2025.

Visa aims to address this source of friction in the financial services industry with its new Subscription Manager tool. As consumers take up several subscription services, maintaining these accounts may become rather onerous.

Subscription Manager: Increasing customer convenience

Visa aims to give financial institutions an all-in-one solution with its new Subscription Manager service, giving cardholders an easy way to track and manage subscriptions through their banking app.

Visa refers to this period as "the era of subscription overload," as customers struggle to keep track of several subscriptions across numerous online platforms and apps.

Cardholders may examine regular payments linked to their card, cancel any undesired repeating payments, and know where their card data are stored thanks to Subscription Manager, which centralizes important components of recurring payments.

The new service from Visa is the most recent addition to the company's Digital Enablement product portfolio, which is a collection of instruments and solutions designed to assist issuers in providing cardholders with improved digital experiences.

The announcement coincides with the payments issuing behemoth's ongoing attempts to boost openness and gain control over the subscription economy.

"Managing subscriptions can often feel like a maze, with consumers sometimes feeling trapped in a cycle of confusing charges," explains Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore, Global Head of Issuing Solutions at Visa.

"Our objective is to streamline this procedure and guarantee that cardholders are aware of the precise whereabouts and timing of their funds."

Within the larger context of digital payments, subscriptions

Subscription services are becoming more and more popular as a result of customer need for safer online payment methods. Issuers like Visa must stay up with customer demand as expectations rise.

In fact, according to a poll conducted by Visa, 63% of respondents said they would feel at ease in a future when the only form of payment accepted is digital currency, driven by the quick development of digital financial services and capabilities.

Additionally, according to Visa, half of the customers polled have started using mobile wallets in the last year alone, and more usage is anticipated in the upcoming months. In an effort to promote broader use of digital payments going forward, the issuer has invested US$100 million in generative AI innovation for payments. Additionally, the issuer's partnership with Western Union has contributed to the growth of cross-border transactions.

This naturally implies that Subscription Manager will be well adopted and have a high level of use.

A complete deployment of Subscription Manager is anticipated eventually; it is already under trial program in a few key locations.