Mastercard announces global launch of its Payment Passkey Service in India

By Gloria Mathias

Mastercard has announced the worldwide launch of its new Payment Passkey Service, which will make online shopping more secure and easier, at Global FinTech Fest in Mumbai, India.

Debuting first in India as a pilot with some of the nation’s payment players, including payment aggregators such as Juspay, Razorpay and PayU, online merchants such as bigbasket and banks such as Axis Bank, the service will give millions of consumers more control and peace of mind when checking out online.

Despite their rising popularity due to their ease of use, one-time passwords (OTPs) are increasingly vulnerable to online scams such as phishing, SIM swapping and message interception.

By replacing traditional passwords and OTPs, the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service makes transactions not only faster but also more secure against fraud and scams. With payment passkeys, consumers can say goodbye to the hassle of forgetting or accidentally sharing their passwords or OTPs.

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.

“By introducing the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service in India, we’re advancing secure online checkout and our vision for a token economy,” said Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer at Mastercard. “Through innovative technology that enhances security and convenience, we’re creating a more transparent commerce ecosystem for all. As we continue to lead the way in digital payments, our commitment to achieving a tokenized future is stronger than ever.”

India, with its rapidly expanding payment ecosystem and advanced tokenization market, is embracing payment passkeys and enhanced biometric authentication in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s goal for a safer, more resilient payment system.

The Mastercard Payment Passkey Service is built for online or remote tokenized transactions, which today help significantly reduce fraud and increase approval rates. By combining the tokenization of payment credentials with seamless biometric authentication, Mastercard is bringing EMVCo, the World Wide Web Consortium and the FIDO Alliance industry standards together to speed and secure the checkout experience.