Visa launches new tokenised technology to protect online shoppers
Visa joins with Australian payment leaders to reduce online fraud and increase customer convenience.
Visa has collaborated with Australian payment leaders CyberSource, Ayden, Rambus, G+D Mobile Security, SecureCo, Ezidebit, eWAY and Bambora to roll out a new technology that will improve security and enhance the convenience of online payments.
Called credential-on-file (COF) tokenisation, the technology means that card details such as account numbers or expiry dates are not stored each time a consumer makes a purchase with an online merchant. Instead, COF tokenisation replaces a customer's card details with unique digital identifiers (tokens), which are used to process payments without using a cardholder’s sensitive information.
While online businesses usually store card details for direct debit, loyalty or account-based online shopping, this will remove any sensitive information from the merchant’s system and reduce the risk of data breach attempts.
Every token is merchant-specific, so it can only be used by the merchant where it is stored. This removes the incentive for hackers to try to steal the account because it’s essentially rendered useless elsewhere.
This technology is similar to what other tokenised, digital payments such as Apple Pay already use.
The technology also aims to help improve sales conversion rates for merchants. This is because it will improve consumer trust and encourage more Australians to shop online.
“This technology enhances the customer experience, enables greater conversion and loyalty for merchants, and protects against fraud,” said Matt Wood, Visa’s head of digital product and partnerships for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific.
According to research conducted by YouGov, 41% of Australians said they’re more likely to purchase from smaller retailers and 39% would be more trusting of online businesses if tokenisation was protecting their card details.
As the tokens are directly linked to a customer’s debit or credit card, this also means that you no longer need to update your account details with a merchant if your card is lost or expired. According to YouGov, 30% of Australians take more than two weeks to update their details when their card is lost or stolen. So not only is tokenisation more convenient for customers, but it also offers potential time savings and higher conversion rates for merchants that opt in to use COF tokenisation.
Visa is rolling out the new COF tokenisation from today, in a move to make Australia one of the fastest adopters of the technology around the world
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