MasterCard has introduced a new online Identity Check, a suite of technology solutions that use advanced technologies to prove a consumer’s identity and simplifies the online shopping experience.
The credit card system provider says existing methods to prove the identity of online shoppers often take consumers away from a retailer’s website, adding to the time it takes to shop online, too often leading to payments being declined or cart abandonment.
MasterCard says Identity Check “will put identity verification at the cardholder’s fingertips” using technologies such as biometrics and SMS-delivered one-time passwords.
“Today, people shop on all sorts of devices, and they expect technology to simplify and secure the transaction,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of Enterprise Security Solutions, MasterCard. “This is exactly what Identity Check delivers.”
MasterCard Identity Check represents a shift in strategy from a reliance on what the consumer knows (passwords), to what they have (mobile phone or other smart device) and who they are (biometrics). Hundreds of cardholders in the Netherlands began using biometric-enabled payments last month, while a similar trial is also underway in the US.
US financial institutions can choose to participate in MasterCard Identity Check beginning in the middle of 2016, with a global expansion in 2017.
MasterCard research shows 53 per cent of shoppers forget crucial passwords more than once a week, losing more than 10 minutes when they reset their accounts. People in Singapore estimate that they lose more 15 minutes every time they have to reset a forgotten password.
“As a result, more than a third of people abandon an online purchase, while six in 10 said it led to missing a time-sensitive transaction like buying concert tickets, and more than one in two in Australia and Singapore have been locked out of a website because of this,” MasterCard reports.
On average, people have to enter passwords eight times per day for the 10 different online accounts or applications they regularly use every week. People in Japan and India enter passwords 11 and nine times a day, respectively, above the global average.
More than one in five people use the same password for everything, while a further 58 per cent rely on only a few different variations – despite warnings it puts them at greater risk from fraud. In Singapore, nearly one in three people use the same password for all their accounts.
Globally, more than half of people want to see passwords replaced by something more convenient, while continuing to deliver the same levels of protection and peace of mind.
