Mastercard Identity Check Program Makes India Debut with Federal Bank

The solution draws on the latest smart authentication standards to offer a frictionless, fast and safe online payment experience 

To create a more convenient and safer payments ecosystem, Mastercard today announced a partnership with Federal Bank to offer Identity Check to the banks’ cardholders. Mastercard Identity Check is a global authentication program that uses the most up-to-date authentication standards of EMV 3-D Secure to provide an additional layer of security for digital transactions and facilitate higher approval rates, improving the authentication experience for merchants, issuers and cardholders.

Mastercard Identity Check provides banks with a secure and user-friendly way to authenticate cardholders without the use of static passwords, increasing approval rates. The enhanced technology and insights ensure consumers can shop where they want with ease, be it in-app, on a browser or through an IoT-enabled device. It also decreases online shopping cart abandonment, reduces fraud and improves conversion rates for e-commerce merchants. Implementation in other regions has shown an increase in digital transaction approvals of nearly 13 percent.

Shalini Warrier, Chief Operating Officer, Federal Bank, said, “We are proud to be the first issuing partner in India to launch the Identity Check program for our cardholders and provide them with superior safety of Mastercard’s global network. We believe that this new solution will provide a seamless experience and will find instant affinity among our Mastercard cardholders.”

“Today, consumers want a complete payment experience when it comes to making large and small purchases. The launch of Identity Check program by Federal Bank and Mastercard will go a long way in providing ease of payments with advanced security to shoppers, said Govind Setlur, CEO, Wibmo, payment solutions partner for Federal Bank. He further added, “Being a pioneer in payment security, we are the first company in India to implement EMV® 3-D Secure protocol in partnership with Federal Bank and Mastercard.”

“We live increasingly connected lives, and are constantly being asked to authenticate and verify our identities. We need a secure but seamless way of doing so –  one that is fit for a world where the boundaries between our physical and the digital lives are fading. Mastercard is committed to creating innovative payments solutions that deliver enhanced safety and security at every touch-point, to enable simple, frictionless consumer experiences. Mastercard would like to congratulate Federal Bank on becoming the first bank in India to deploy the Identity Check program. Mastercard is delighted to partner with Federal Bank as it leads the way in payments authentication and security in India,” said Sujay Vasudevan, Vice President, Cyber & Intelligence Solutions, South Asia, Mastercard.

Security by Design

Mastercard has a long history of investing and innovating across multiple layers of technology to protect customers and cardholders from fraudulent activity and keep payments safe, including EMV chip technology, artificial intelligence, biometrics, tokenization and authentication with security solutions such as Decision Intelligence, Safety Net, Early Detection and NuDetect. In May 2019, Mastercard announced it would invest US$1 billion in India over the next five years, in addition to its earlier investment of  US$1 billion between 2014-19. A significant part of this investment will be put towards establishing a full, on-soil domestic transactions processing center in and for India.