Mastercard has presented its ambitious vision to transform digital payments, aiming to phase out manual card and password entry by 2030.
The company plans to leverage biometric authentication, such as fingerprints and facial recognition, alongside tokenization technology to create a frictionless, secure online shopping experience.
By eliminating the need for physical card numbers and static passwords, Mastercard envisions a future where payments are seamless and more secure. This shift would see numberless physical cards becoming the norm, reducing fraud risks if cards are lost or stolen. Tokenization, introduced a decade ago to protect sensitive data, is at the heart of this transformation, ensuring every online transaction is both tokenized and authenticated.
Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s Chief Product Officer, likened this evolution to the shift from card swiping to tapping. “We’re now moving from manual entry and passwords to seamless, secure payments in just a few clicks,” he said, emphasizing the role of advanced encryption and tokenization technologies in safeguarding sensitive information.
Despite advancements in digital payment technology, online shopping still faces significant challenges. Mastercard’s research indicates that nearly two-thirds of consumers struggle with manually entering card details, leading to abandoned carts. Additionally, online fraud remains a persistent issue, with rates up to seven times higher than in physical stores.
The initiative is already gaining traction in key markets. Over 30% of Mastercard transactions are currently tokenized, with adoption rates approaching 100% for e-commerce in countries like India. In Latin America, Mastercard is collaborating with partners like Sympla in Brazil and Yuno to deploy its Payment Passkey Service. Click to Pay, another Mastercard solution, is rapidly expanding in the region with support from major issuers like Santander and Banco Inter.
This initiative builds on Mastercard’s previous efforts to modernise payment technology, such as phasing out magnetic stripes in 2021.