Mastercard plans to make manual card number entry obsolete for online payments in Europe by 2030, without sacrificing transaction security through tokenization. This technology replaces the 16-digit card number with a random token, making card information unusable for fraudsters.
Valerie Nowak, vice president at Mastercard Europe, said that in Europe, “We have seen tokenization gain popularity across the ecosystem. The convenience and reduced fraud rates speak for themselves. We are confident that by 2030, this vision will be beneficial to buyers, retailers and card issuers“.
Mastercard’s initiative is not only a security measure, but also an improvement in user experience. Consumers will no longer need to enter their card number each time they make a purchase, or remember their passwords. Instead, they will be able to use passkeys and biometric authentication, such as a fingerprint, to make one-click payments.
According to a study by Juniper Research, losses due to online fraud are expected to exceed $91 billion by 2028, with a total of more than $362 billion globally over the next five years.
Another advantage of this technology is that tokens, unlike traditional card numbers, have no intrinsic value. If a token is stolen, it is useless to cybercriminals. Additionally, tokenization eliminates the need to reissue a new card if lost or stolen, as tokens can be updated automatically where they are stored.
Credit cards have evolved over the decades, from magnetic strips to microchips to contactless payment. Mastercard is banking on this new technology to make online payments as seamless as contactless payments in stores.
