Partners join forces to enhance digital payment experience with biometrics

A pair of partnerships have been formed to bring biometrics to payments, one in Asia Pacific and another in the Middle East.

Mastercard and Vesta have announced a new strategic partnership to improve the safety and security of ecommerce transactions in Asia Pacific.

The agreement will provide Mastercard merchants with enhanced protection against fraud while offering customers a more secure digital payment experience.

By joining forces, Mastercard’s Cyber & Intelligence products and solutions will integrate into Vesta’s transaction guarantee platform. The companies say this partnership allows merchants to reduce online fraud, approve more transactions and expand their business.

“Mastercard is excited to have the opportunity to work together and deliver on the cybersecurity needs of its customers in Asia Pacific, making the region’s digital economy safer, more seamless and secure,” says Karthik Ramanathan, the SVP of cyber and intelligence at Asia Pacific Mastercard.

The announcement follows a Juniper Research study which found that the global cost of e-commerce fraud may reach $48 billion in 2023, making it a growing challenge for merchants worldwide. The new partnership will help address this issue and provide Mastercard merchants with complete protection before, during and after a transaction.

The service, slated to launch in the second quarter of 2023, will also offer improved digital payment efficiency with tools including behavioral biometrics and identity verification, allowing merchants to approve more legitimate transactions with zero fraud chargeback liability.

“Through this strategic partnership, merchants will benefit from one integration into Vesta’s decision engine to approve more legitimate transactions with zero fraud chargeback liability, allowing them to focus on growing sales and improving customer experience without the fear of fraud,” says Shabab Muhaddes, the SVP of Vesta and GM of APAC.

Areeba launches out-of-band biometrics through Netcetera collaboration

Areeba sal, a payment processing service provider in the Middle East and North Africa region, has announced a partnership with Swiss payment company Netcetera to introduce Out-of-Band (OOB) authentication with biometric reading for e-commerce transactions.

This move aims to provide cardholders with improved security and fraud protection through their mobile apps, utilizing native device fingerprint or face biometrics.

In 2020, the companies originally partnered to implement a 3-D Secure protocol backed by Netcetera’s Access Control Server (ACS).

“Everything goes smoothly when you have a partner like Netcetera. When we started our cooperation, we recognized the big potential for growing the business of our customers and for improving their lifestyles,” says Maher Mikati, the CEO of Areeba. “By accepting what Netcetera enables as proven success in other developed markets, we act proactively to our customer’s demands and keep their competitiveness at the highest level.”

The digital identity solutions market is currently valued at $28 billion and is expected to exceed $70 billion by 2027, according to Statista.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric payments  |  digital payments  |  ecommerce  |  Mastercard  |  Netcetera  |  secure transactions