Tokenization replaces the need for merchants or digital wallet operators to store personal account numbers (PANs). Personal account numbers are protected by replacing them with a unique alternate or dynamic PAN. These tokens can only be used temporarily at a designated channel or merchant; card data obtained from data breaches are therefore useless. It also provides increased control by facilitating card-not-present payments and removing confidential consumer credit card data from the network.

This virtual reality app shows you how tokenization works for mobile payments.