Mastercard has launched its new Payment Passkey Service globally, beginning with a pilot program in India. This innovative service aims to enhance security and streamline online shopping by replacing traditional passwords and one-time passwords with biometric authentication, such as fingerprints or facial scans. Collaborating with payment aggregators like Juspay, Razorpay, and PayU, along with major banks such as Axis Bank, the service offers millions of consumers greater control over online transactions. Mastercard’s Payment Passkey Service uses tokenization to protect payment details and biometric data, making it more resistant to fraud such as phishing and SIM swapping.
The Payment Passkey Service is part of Mastercard's broader efforts to create a tokenized payment ecosystem, aligning with global standards from EMVCo, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the FIDO Alliance. India, with its rapidly expanding digital payment infrastructure, is a key market for this initiative, reflecting the Reserve Bank of India's focus on a safer payment system. The service promises faster and more secure checkouts, leading to fewer abandoned carts for businesses and peace of mind for consumers. Mastercard plans to expand the service to more markets worldwide following the initial rollout in India.
