Payment giant Mastercard is accelerating and securing online transactions in Asia Pacific by eliminating the need for one-time passwords (OTPs) with its enhanced Mastercard Payment Passkey service.
This service allows consumers to authenticate online payments using biometrics like fingerprints or facial scans, similar to unlocking a smartphone.
The Mastercard Payment Passkey Service combines tokenisation, Click to Pay, and biometric authentication to offer a seamless and secure checkout experience.
Tokenisation replaces sensitive card information with unique tokens, protecting card details, while Click to Pay supports streamlined guest checkouts by allowing users to store payment information securely with Mastercard.
This enables shoppers to complete guest checkouts without storing card details, offering enhanced security against fraud.
Launched at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, this initiative builds on Mastercard’s successful rollout of biometric authentication in India earlier this year.
The service is rapidly gaining traction with merchants, who benefit from fewer abandoned carts, increased sales, and improved fraud protection, and is being adopted by major banks and payment aggregators, who gain top-of-wallet status and enhanced customer security.
Major banks like DBS and UOB are already utilising this technology.
The technology also tokenizes payment credentials and biometric data, ensuring that sensitive information is never shared with third parties.
To use this service, consumers simply enroll their Mastercard once.
During checkout, they select their card and confirm the payment using biometrics on their device.
This process, supported by EMVCo, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the FIDO Alliance industry standards, ensures a quick and secure transaction without the need for passwords.
The service is designed for use across various devices and platforms, enhancing its accessibility and convenience.
“Just as contactless technology made in-person payments seamless and ubiquitous, Mastercard sees the opportunity to bring that same experience to online checkout. That’s why we’re calling ‘time’ on one-time passwords and multi-step payment authentication.
With biometric authentication with payment passkeys, shoppers are spared the hassle of cumbersome checkouts while merchants enjoy both speed and security.”
said Sandeep Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Products & Innovation, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.
Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik
