Mastercard is planning to phase out manual card and password entry in favour of smiles and fingerprints by the end of 2030.

The company said it plans to replace the need for manual card entry and static or one-time passwords by combining tokenisation and biometric authentication for more secure payment processes.

According to the payments giant, the online shopping ecosystem will be drastically transformed by the end of the decade, with physical cards and one-time codes no longer required to complete online purchases.

These methods will be replaced by secure on-device biometrics that will enable seamless authentication between devices and websites.

“This vision is already becoming a reality today in major markets and is poised to become ubiquitous within a few short years,” said Mastercard in a statement.

Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, explained that the company is already moving away from manual card entry and passwords to offer more secure payments using tokenisation technologies.

“With this shift we are protecting sensitive data through advanced encryption and tokenisation technologies,” he said. “As payments continue to be embedded across a range of commerce experiences, we’re leading the way to a global economy that empowers everyone, providing consumers with greater control, convenience and peace-of-mind while unlocking new sales for merchants, and lowering fraud for issuers.” 

The move comes as the company shares concerns about growing online fraud rates. According to Mastercard, the occurrence of fraud is seven times higher online than in stores.

In addition, Mastercard shared data showing that nearly two-thirds of shoppers still struggle with the complexity of online payments, with 25 per cent of shopping carts abandoned because users find it too difficult or complex to complete payments.

It said that tokenisation is already reducing card abandonment, generating up to $2 billion in additional global sales for merchants each month and minimiszing the risk of fraud.

The company added that it is working with a number of operators to scale a range of new technologies, with more than 30 percent of Mastercard transactions being tokenised through the Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES).

Other services include the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service, a technology that allows users to authenticate their payments using biometric data, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, instead of traditional one-time passwords (OTPs).

Mastercard also has a Click to Pay service which allows users to store multiple payment methods in a single account, aiming to make the checkout process faster and more convenient. 

These technologies have already been deployed by a number of banks and payment aggregators including Axis Bank, BigBasket, Juspay, noon Payments, Lenskart, Razorpay, PayU and Tap Payments, and NatWest.

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