Figures released by Visa during its Q4 results underscore why the credit card giant is pushing its digital plans so hard.

The company said mobile, tablet and online purchases in the US are growing at a high double digit to triple digit rate versus a rate of only single digits for face-to-face transactions.

Furthermore, Visa said online and mobile transactions represent 19 per cent of its business today, although it did not specify whether this was measured by volume of transactions or revenue.

Visa Checkout, its latest effort to crack the mobile and online market, has attracted more than 1.9 million registered users, as well as signing up over 200 financial institutions, it said during an investors’ call.

In early September the company launched Visa Token Services, a wholesale initiative that enables its clients to offer their cardholders a token-based approach to online and mobile transactions.

Apple Pay is the first commercial service based on Visa’s token approach. The new Apple service signed up one million users in its first three days, a considerably faster rate than Visa’s checkout service.