At a keynote during the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Mastercard introduced its newest Payment Passkey Service-an innovative technology put together to make online shopping more secure and hassle-free. First launched in India with major payment players like Juspay, Razorpay, and PayU, along with online merchants like bigbasket, and leading banks like Axis Bank, it will empower consumers with more control and security when transacting online.
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But with their growing popularity, OTPs have also emerged as increasingly vulnerable to fraud chains through phishing, SIM swapping, and interceptions of messages. According to the Reserve Bank of India, the number of fraud cases in the last two years alone has almost tripled, raising an urgent, strong need for more secure alternatives.
Therefore, biometric authentication, such as fingerprints or facial scans, substitutes for passwords and OTPs through the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service. This innovative solution not only quickens checkouts but is secure in that financial data will not be exposed to fraudsters.
Here’s how this works:
Shoppers select their Mastercard at checkout or a card securely stored with the merchant.
To confirm the payment, the user authenticates the payment via the biometric feature of the device.
As soon as the authentication is made, the payment goes through in real time.
Commenting on the launch, Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, said, “The introduction of the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service to India moves us further toward our vision of a token economy. By embedding innovative technology for increased security and convenience, we are working towards creating a more interoperable commerce environment.”
India’s changing payment landscape in tune with a top-class focus on advanced tokenization therefore precisely meets the objective of the Reserve Bank of India for a less vulnerable payment system. Advantages of payment passkeys include speed and convenience, along with even better safety and a user experience. Businesses will have lower cart abandonment and fraud rates, while consumers enjoy speedier checkouts and much more peace of mind.
The service tokenization would be merged with biometric authentication in conformance with the industry standards from EMVCo, W3C, and the FIDO Alliance for a safer and slicker checkout.
After the Indian pilot, in the coming months, Mastercard plans to roll out the Payment Passkey Service globally, it said.
Reactions from partners:
Sanjeev Moghe, President and Head- Cards & Payments, Axis Bank, said, “We believe this partnership will take frictionless, secure yet seamless experience to the next level for our customers.”
Sheetal Lalwani, COO and Co-founder, Juspay added, “This service will provide better success rates and overall sales to merchants.”
Manas Mishra, Chief Product Officer at PayU said, “It helps once again push the envelope on payments security and user experience.”.Arif Khan, chief innovation officer at Razorpay, added that this service improved security in transactions, besides making the process of paying much easier with biometric authentication.
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