Mastercard aims to 100% tokenize e-commerce in Europe

Introduced by Visa and Mastercard in 2014, tokenization replaces the 16-19 digit number on a payment card with a secure token, reducing fraud and improving acceptance rates.

Visa recently issued its 10 billionth token, and Mastercard says its tokenization service today secures 25% of all e-commerce transactions globally, with adoption accelerating 50% year-over-year.

But as online payment fraud remains a serious problem and is expected to exceed $91 billion by 2028, Mastercard is doubling down on its security efforts.

In addition to tokenization, the company makes it easier to embed click-to-pay options on merchant sites to eliminate manual card entry. It also uses online mobile-based biometric authentication to eliminate passwords and one-time codes.

The company says it is “committed” to achieving 100% tokenization in Europe first due to the continent’s leading position as a payments innovator.

Valerie Nowak, vice president of product and innovation at Mastercard Europe, says: “In Europe, we have seen tokenization gain momentum across the ecosystem, with the convenience and reduced fraud rates selling for themselves. We are confident that achieving this vision by 2030 will deliver win-win benefits for shoppers, retailers and card issuers alike.”