Mastercard replacement of OTPs with passkeys and Click to Pay reaches APAC

Mastercard is enabling faster and more convenient online transactions with its newest feature, Mastercard Click to Pay, launching in the Asia-pacific region.

The result is that consumers will be able to enjoy one-click checkout across devices, browsers and operating systems, without needing to input one-time passwords (OTPs).

The feature is enabled by the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service, which allows on-device biometric authentication through facial scans or fingerprints, the same way phones are unlocked.

With Mastercard Click to Pay, online shoppers won’t need to have an account or saved card-on-file with a merchant in order to use the biometric authentication function. Mastercard says the feature combines the “fraud-busting powers of tokenization” and payment passkeys.

“Just as contactless technology made in-person payments seamless and ubiquitous, Mastercard sees the opportunity to bring that same experience to online checkout,” says Sandeep Malhotra, executive vice president of Products & Innovation at Asia Pacific, Mastercard.

“That’s why we’re calling ‘time’ on one-time passwords and multi-step payment authentication,” he continues. “With biometric authentication with payment passkeys, shoppers are spared the hassle of cumbersome checkouts while merchants enjoy both speed and security.”

Mastercard claims that merchants will see fewer abandoned carts, increased sales and fraud protection. On the consumer side, Payment passkeys means there won’t be a delay from waiting for banking applications or push notifications.

Security should be tighter since biometric authentication eliminates the risk of passwords being stolen or compromised. In addition, both payment credentials and biometric authentication are tokenized so that the raw data is not shared with third parties.

Launched at the Singapore FinTech Festival this week, the new feature is being taken up by merchants, such as by eyewear company Lenskart whose chief business officer commented that the service is a “gamer-changer for e-commerce.”

This follows Mastercard bringing its passkey service for digital payments to the Middle East and North Africa, and also enabling passkeys for payments in India.

In Singapore, the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service is being supported by Juspay as well as local banks DBS and UOB. “Launching this industry-first concept in Asia highlights Juspay’s dedication to enhancing e-commerce through innovation and technology,” says Sheetal Lalwani, COO and co-founder of Juspay.

“With the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service, merchants will see higher payment success rates and increased sales while consumers can make secure, biometric payments without multiple redirects, making digital payments seamless and accessible,” he continued.

Last month, Jonathan Grossar of Mastercard, Henna Kapur of Visa and Sean Estrada of Stripe chatted about the adoption of passkeys for online payments – the advantages and complications – during Authenticate, presented by the FIDO Alliance, of which more can be read here.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  Mastercard  |  one-time password (OTP)  |  passkeys  |  payment passkey