Mastercard Selects India for Debuting Its New Payment Service That Uses Biometrics

Mastercard has chosen India for the global launch of its Payment Passkey Service. This innovative service aims to enhance online shopping security by using biometric authentication methods such as fingerprints and facial recognition, replacing traditional passwords and one-time passwords (OTPs).

The service was unveiled at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai and is being piloted with major Indian payment players like Juspay, Razorpay, and PayU, as well as online merchants such as bigbasket and banks like Axis Bank. This move is expected to significantly reduce online fraud, which has surged by nearly 300% in India over the past two years.

It is to be noted that despite the rising popularity of one-time passwords (OTPs) due to their ease of use, they are increasingly vulnerable to online scams such as phishing, SIM swapping and message interception. In India, the incidence of fraud cases has surged by nearly 300% in the last two years, as reported by the Reserve Bank of India’s Annual Report for 2023-2024.

By leveraging tokenization and biometric authentication, Mastercard's Payment Passkey Service aims to make online transactions faster and more secure, providing a seamless checkout experience for millions of shoppers.

The Mastercard Payment Passkey Service uses tokenization to secure a consumer’s payment details and biometric data, ensuring that no data is shared with third parties and is useless to fraudsters and scammers. The service is a game changer for online checkout:

1. Shoppers choose their Mastercard when checking out as a guest or select a card already stored securely on file with a merchant.

2. To confirm the payment, users can use biometric authentication mechanism features on their device – whether it’s a fingerprint, face scan or PIN.

3. Upon successful authentication, the payment is instantly completed.

Other countries are also adopting biometric authentication technologies for online transactions and digital identity systems.

Singapore’s SingPass system is one of the most advanced digital ID systems globally, allowing citizens to access over 700 government and private sector services using biometric authentication.
Similarily, Estonia’s eID system is renowned for its security and efficiency, offering over 600 e-services to citizens and 2400 to businesses. It uses biometric data to ensure secure access.

"We are excited to be partnering with Mastercard to pilot its Payment Passkey Service as an alternate transaction authentication method and provide our customers a non-OTP-based solution for transaction management,” said Sanjeev Moghe, president and head, Cards & Payments, at Axis Bank. “This will allow us to provide more engaging usage and in-app experience for customers who desire enhanced security and frictionless payments.”

“Enabling this industry-first proof of concept underscores Juspay’s commitment to empower merchants with innovation and technology that improves the e-commerce experience,” said Sheetal Lalwani, chief operating officer and co-founder of Juspay. “We believe this solution will help our merchant customers improve payment success rates and overall sales. With this pilot, merchants can significantly improve the payment experience for end consumers, allowing them to make payments easily, without multiple redirects, in a safe and secure way using device biometrics. We are working with Mastercard in shaping a future where digital payments are seamless and accessible to all, enabling merchants to better serve their customers.”

"As the country’s payment ecosystem matures, the demand for advanced and secure payment solutions is greater than ever,” said Manas Mishra, PayU’s chief product officer. “At PayU, we are relentlessly focused on pushing the boundaries of payment security and user experience as a resiliently progressive payments platform. Integrating the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service is a pivotal step in that direction. This partnership reflects our commitment to embracing cutting-edge payment technologies and reinforces our role in setting new benchmarks for security and efficiency in digital transactions."

"We are thrilled to join forces with Mastercard to introduce its Payment Passkey Service in India, a groundbreaking initiative that enhances transaction security and user experience in remote commerce, leveraging the power of biometric authentication,” said Arif Khan, chief innovation officer of Razorpay. “At Razorpay, our focus is on the 3 's's — safety, simplification and success rate — to ensure seamless and secure online payments. We strive to stay ahead of the curve by integrating advanced technologies that not only safeguard our merchants and their customers but also streamline the payment process."
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