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MasterCard app to simplify online shopping experience 

MasterCard app to simplify online shopping experience 

Biometrics using facial recognition or fingerprint scanning will do away with password

In the near future, MasterCard customers in the region will be able to conduct e-business transactions via biometrics using a fingerprint scan or facial recognition through a selfie, thanks to the global card provider’s new e-payment development called MasterCard Identity Check Mobile – also known as “Selfie Pay”.
The new service is expected to be available in Asia-Pacific next year.  
Bob Reany, the US-based company’s executive vice president for Identity Solutions, described MasterCard Identity Check Mobile as a new payment technology application that uses biometrics, including fingerprint and facial recognition, to verify a cardholder’s identity and simplify online shopping. 
Customers who opt in to using Identity Check Mobile will use an app to verify their online purchases. While shopping, the cardholder will be notified instantly by the app when they need to verify an online purchase by swiping a fingerprint or snapping a selfie photo, he said.
Identity Check Mobile minimises the need for passwords, dramatically speeding up the digital checkout process while also improving security, Reany stressed, adding that a cardholder can verify their identity by using the fingerprint scanner or facial recognition technology on their smart phone with the Identity Check app.
The roll-out of Identity Check Mobile follows a successful soft launch and a survey of more than 700 MasterCard customers in August, in which 74 per cent of participants strongly agreed that biometrics was easier to use than passwords. 
Moreover, nine out of every 10 respondents said they anticipated using biometrics for online payment security in the future.
“The pilot tested the potential of delivering greater security and convenience using biometric technology. Our goals were to understand the attitudes and perceptions of our participants toward biometrics as an online payment security solution. MasterCard is committed to developing solutions that eliminate static passwords, utilising biometrics to make payments safe and simple,” he explained.
The company spent three years developing the new Identity Check Mobile service, which was piloted in August, and is currently further developing the voice recognition and iris-scan elements to support e-payments and make the service more widely available internationally as the next step. 
MasterCard now provides the service in 14 countries, including the US and Canada, and expects to make it available in Asia-Pacific next year, with Singapore being the first country in the region in which it will be available to cardholders, the executive said. 
“The digital check identifies users by using unique personal characteristics such as fingerprints or the face. During checkout in a Web store, the consumer will receive a pop-up on his mobile phone, through which he can authorise the payment easily via finger scan or selfie recognition,” he added.
A platform for all innovation in businesses
MasterCard provides a platform for innovation in all types of business, such as Amazon (in retail), iTunes (in digital-media goods) and Uber (in automotive), all of which have been built upon access to safe and secure payments using MasterCard technology to give immediate access to the card provider’s 2.3 billion users, said Ed McLaughlin, chief information officer.
“The company provides a vital role in innovation and we build a platform for people wanting to build their business on top of it,” he said.
“We are celebrating our 50th year and it is something to be proud of. It is amazing to say that after 50 years, we can still demonstrate double-digit growth. We now have over 2.3 billion MasterCard users that are out there, more than the number of Facebook users. 
“We are now connecting 40 million merchants to the network, and have a goal to take it to100 million. We were trying to find our first e-commerce transaction, and we think it was 24 years ago. And from that small beginning, commerce has been transformed. Everything we do or think is about the customer experience. 
“Now, what we are doing is connecting the physical world to our devices – and it is powerful. It’s not a separation, but it’s a blurring of what happens to the physical world and what happens to the online world,” the CIO said. 
The physical and digital worlds have become combined and this connectivity has transformed how to educate and how to interact with each other, and how to interact with society and government, he added. 
“I believe that all this change and interaction will permanently change how people transact, and that’s the platform we have on that. We believe that every device will be used for commerce and will be much more contextual. We get the platform ready for that. We get those services right and the platform is ready for disruption. The platform is enabling the third wave of disruption. 
“So, the network is a foundation of innovation. For us, technology always has been our business. Our obligation is to make sure you get genuine transactions,” McLaughlin explained.
More than 20 per cent of global e-commerce runs through MasterCard today, while 85 per cent of the world’s spending is still in cash, he said. 
“We believe that we have the best options for consumers. If we had a better, more secure system, then we would put it in use, but right now we have this kind of system – and it’s very useful,” he added. 
Meanwhile, Johan Gerber, MasterCard executive vice president for Security and Decision Products, said the Internet of Things was now enabling opportunities for the powering of payments everywhere.
There are now around 7 billion people on the planet, with some 4.9 billion connected things in use this year – a figure that is expected to soar to 30 billion devices in 2020, with the potential to create cyber-security breaches costing US$2.1 trillion (Bt74.3 billion) through the digitisation of consumers and enterprises, he said. 
Customers will therefore embrace new payment technologies that they trust, and MasterCard enables consumers to experience “security at work through intelligent friction and giving them control”, Gerber said, adding that MasterCard is “a trusted partner and technology enabler”.

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