Mastercard launches next-generation identity technology with Microsoft to help more consumers shop online safely

• New “trust” tool improves online experience and helps tackle digital fraud
• Microsoft named as first partner for new technology

Mastercard on Monday announced the launch of an enhanced identity solution designed to improve the online shopping experience and tackle digital fraud in a new collaboration with Microsoft Corp.

Now more than ever, delivering a frictionless shopping experience is critical as retailers look to shift window shopping and price comparison visits to confirmed sales. And, while consumers enjoy the convenience of shopping online, fraudsters also seek to develop new methods to use these same channels for ill-gotten gains. One of the growing types of digital fraud is first-party fraud, where a legitimate purchase is made online but later disputed. First-party fraud is estimated to be a $50 billion global issue.

Mastercard has directly addressed these needs by enhancing its Digital Transaction Insights solution with next-generation authentication and real-time decisioning intelligence capabilities. The solution pairs Mastercard’s network insights with the merchant’s own data to confirm the consumer is who they claim to be, providing financial institutions with the additional intelligence needed to optimize their authorization decisions and approve more genuine transactions. Digital Transaction Insights is used across a wide range of online checkout instances, from click-to-pay functionality and wearables to digital wallets and in-app purchases.

Ajay Bhalla, president, Cyber and Intelligence at Mastercard, said, “Shopping online should be simple, quick and secure. But that isn’t always the case. We’re committed to developing advanced identity and fraud technology to help enhance the real-time intelligence we provide to financial institutions around the globe. This builds on our longstanding commitment of working across the industry to provide advanced technologies that enable trust, and help build a safe and thriving digital ecosystem for all.”

Microsoft will be the first partner to share its insights and integrate with the new Digital Transaction Insights solution across several lines of business. Building on a long history of cross-collaboration, Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection’s proprietary risk assessment, which leverages adaptive AI to assist in real-time fraud detection by identifying risky behaviors across purchase, account and in-store activities, has been integrated with Mastercard’s Digital Transaction Insights to better enable real-time intelligence sharing in an easily consumable and actionable format. This will enable issuers to enhance their decision-making processes for authorizations, chargebacks and refunds. Moreover, organizations can improve transaction acceptance rates with insights that help them balance profitability and revenue opportunities against fraud loss and checkout friction.

Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president of Business Applications and Platforms at Microsoft, said, “We are excited to partner with Mastercard to leverage our cloud-native, cutting-edge fraud assessment tools to empower issuers and merchants to prevent more fraud and approve more genuine users. This partnership lays the foundation for the future of global fraud prevention where data silos are no longer a barrier to security.”

Digital Transaction Insights is enabled by EMV 3-D Secure and Mastercard Identity Check, a global authentication solution built on the enhanced industry standard. Both elements support GDPR requirements and other related regulations. In 2021 alone, Mastercard Identity Check delivered a 14% uplift in transaction approval rates across billions of transactions.

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