Goodbye card numbers, hello smiles: Mastercard sets vision to help tackle Australia’s $1bn fraud problem by 2030

One-click online checkouts using your face, moving money in real time and numberless cards – just some of the ways Mastercard will continue to fuel the next decade of Australia’s digital economy               

As Australians increasingly expect the same simple, safe, and seamless experiences online as they do in-store, Mastercard has unveiled its five-year vision to transform payments in Australia – addressing emerging threats and laying the foundation for the next decade of secure, frictionless transactions.

With card-related fraud nearing $1 billion in Australia in 2024¹, at the forefront of this vision is fundamentally transforming the way people shop online – eliminating the need to manually enter card details or passwords. Instead, consumers will be able to securely access their available cards, directly from their financial institution, using just their e-mail address and a smile to verify their identity.

Over the next five years, Mastercard will work with its financial institution partners in Australia to roll out:

• One-click biometric checkouts: automatically enrolling cards in new technology that replaces manual data entry, one-time PINs and sensitive information at checkout, instead using secure biometrics to verify identity.

• Numberless and sustainable cards: physical cards without the 16-digit number, enhancing security while also being made entirely from sustainable materials – providing stronger fraud protection and a reduced environmental footprint.

• Unique, one-time card numbers: giving cardholders the ability to generate “stand in” numbers for specific transactions, further supported by enhanced controls for location, budget, merchant, and spending categories.

• One card, multiple ways to pay: enabling a single digital card to support multiple payment types – including debit, instalments, credit, and prepaid– for greater flexibility and convenience.

• Real-time card payments: delivering secure, real-time processing and accelerated settlement of payments, giving businesses faster access to funds and improving cash flow and productivity, and consumers greater transparency of their balance.

"This vision underscores Mastercard’s commitment to collaborating with our partners to bring the very latest in simple, secure, and seamless payment innovations to Australians around the country. By ensuring that our technology evolves to meet both current and emerging threats and cardholder needs, we are not only safeguarding those in the ecosystem but also solidifying Australia's position as a global leader in the rollout and adoption of cutting-edge payment technology," said Richard Wormald, division president, Australasia at Mastercard.

Transforming online checkout: more security, without sacrificing convenience 

With e-commerce sales in Australia hitting $69bn in 2024², the need to enhance security while creating the same seamless experience online that consumers enjoy in-store, has never been more prevalent. With the average online checkout experience requiring eight points of data entry and 105 keystrokes to complete, Mastercard is committed to fundamentally transforming online checkout by 2030, putting cardholder security, control, and choice at the forefront.

Manually entering card details, passwords, or one-time PINs (OTPs) will become a thing of the past, replaced by a highly secure email lookup, protected by biometrics. 

To enable this, all newly issued Mastercard cards in Australia will be automatically enrolled in Mastercard Payment Passkeys – replacing OTPs with biometric verification such as facial or fingerprint recognition – and Mastercard Click to Pay, an online checkout experience that provides seamless, secure access to payment credentials directly from the cardholder’s financial institution, using an authenticated email address. Compared to current checkout experiences, Click to Pay requires only one point of data entry, and as few as four keystrokes to complete a transaction.

In tandem, Mastercard will look to prohibit local merchants from storing non-tokenised card numbers on file, a common source of payment credential theft globally.

The future of the card: numberless, tokenised, customisable and sustainable

In February 2025, Mastercard announced plans to remove the traditional 16-digit number from the front of physical cards in Australia, securing it within banking apps by the end of the decade.

By digitising this key piece of information through tokenisation and cryptogram technologies, Mastercard can significantly enhance both security and the control cardholders have over their payments. This includes the ability to generate single-use card numbers for one-off payments or subscriptions, as well as applying specific controls to their credentials – such as setting maximum transaction amounts, restricting usage by location or merchant, or even limiting transactions to certain retail categories.

Mastercard is giving consumers enhanced choice and control with Mastercard One Credential – a single, digital credential that offers multiple ways to pay. Cardholders can set preferences for how transactions are funded based on amount or shopping location, with payments automatically routed through debit, credit, instalments, or prepaid funds according to their chosen settings – all within a seamless digital experience.

Personalisation and sustainability are also key pillars of the vision. In addition to enabling cardholders to customise their Mastercard in their digital wallet with dynamic artwork, Mastercard will mandate that all cards be made entirely from sustainable materials by January 1, 2028 – accelerating efforts to eliminate first-use PVC plastics from payment cards across the network.

Mastercard will also enable real-time payments on its network in Australia, accelerating settlement for businesses from when the customer’s card is tapped and a sale is made, to when the funds land in their bank account – providing greater clarity and control of their finances.

"The future of payments in Australia is all about empowering people with complete control over their payments – from how they share their data, to how they pay and get paid, and even how their cards look,” adds Wormald.  

“By transforming the banking app into the ultimate control tower for your payments, we're not just enhancing convenience; we're building and maintaining the chain of trust that cardholders establish when they open a bank account. This approach ensures that sensitive data stays in the hands of the organisations they actively choose to trust with their financial information, making every transaction secure and seamless."