Mastercard launches identity, attribute verification based on payment card data

Mastercard has unveiled an Identity Attribute Verification service for online interactions based on new industry specifications from EMVCo.

The service will soon reach a production rollout, at which point it will enable relying parties to verify attributes like age and physical address, according to a company announcement.

The process is described as happening “in the background,” in a request from the relying party to Mastercard, and then a validation of the requested data returned based on information the payment network already has on file with the customer’s payment card.

The EMV 3-D Secure Attribute Verification Message Extension v1.0 draft was published on July 31.

“Using the technology behind a payment card, our solutions will allow our partners to seamlessly verify that a consumer meets the criteria for certain goods and services while protecting their privacy,” writes Dennis Gamiello, executive vice president of identity products and innovation at Mastercard. “Doing so eliminates the often cumbersome task of uploading documents like photo ID, proof of residency or passport.”

Gamiello also states that the service aligns with Privacy by Design principles by sharing only the data a user agrees to verify to complete the transaction.

The service will roll out to “a few countries across Europe” first, and then expand into more countries in 2025.

Mastercard has been rapidly building out its services for identity verification, KYC and payment authentication with initiatives like a commitment to passkeys and the launch of biometric checkouts. While many of the company’s recent announcements, like the Identity Attribute Verification service, are described in terms of online transactions, Gamiello also described Mastercard’s vision for in-person verifications with biometrics in a recent episode of the company’s podcast.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  EMVCo  |  identity verification  |  Mastercard  |  Privacy by Design