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Modulr glossary

Variable Recurring Payment (VRP)

In broader fintech and blockchain contexts, tokenisation also refers to the digital representation of assets – whether fungible (interchangeable, like currency) or non-fungible (unique, like NFTs) – on a distributed ledger. While not directly equivalent to payment tokenisation, both forms share the principle of substituting sensitive or valuable information with secure digital tokens. As financial services evolve, there is increasing convergence between traditional payment tokenisation and blockchain-based asset tokenisation, especially in areas like decentralised finance (DeFi) and programmable payments.

Applications

E-commerce:

Reduces fraud in online card payments by verifying the cardholder's identity

Banking and fintech:

Helps issuers and payment providers comply with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements.

Advantages

  • Enhanced security: Reduces unauthorised transactions by verifying that the genuine account holder is authorising the payment
  • Fraud prevention: Helps reduce chargebacks related to fraud.

Challenges

  • User Experience: Additional authentication steps can cause friction and increase checkout abandonment
  • Implementation complexity: Requires integration with card schemes and issuer systems.

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