As of January 2025, Sympla, an events platform based in Brazil, and Yuno, a Latin American global payments orchestrator, are among the first partners in the region to provide the solution to their customers. Afterwards, Mastercard plans a wider roll out. By introducing the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service, the company intends to simplify ecommerce and improve the customer journey, leveraging device-based biometrics to replace other authentication methods for online transactions. Through this, the solution can make online payments more efficient and convenient, while safeguarding them against fraud and scams.
Following an upgrade from November 2024, the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service utilises the company’s tokenization technology to ensure that card data is not shared with third parties and cannot be leveraged by fraudsters and scammers if a data breach happens. In addition, shoppers can select their Mastercard card when checking out with Click to Pay, or choose a card already stored on file with a merchant. To verify the transaction, they can utilise biometric authentication capabilities available on their devices, including fingerprint or facial scans. After successfully authenticating, the payment is completed.
By introducing the solution in Latin America, Mastercard aims to advance its commitment to creating a payment experience that provides both convenience and security. Working with Yuno and Sympla enables the company to develop payment authentication in the region and meet the scaling demand for optimised services.
Mastercard Payment Passkey Service: initial launch and expansion
The Mastercard Payment Passkey Service was first announced in August 2024, with the company planning to introduce it in India initially as a pilot with some of the region’s payment participants, including Juspay, Razorpay, and PayU, as well as bigbasket, and Axis Bank. The decision to launch the solution in India could have been attributed to the country’s favourable payment ecosystem and tokenization market. Also, India has been on a journey to implement payment passkeys and advanced biometric authentication technology to accomplish a more resilient payment system.
Fast forward to October 2024, Mastercard teamed up with noon Payments to launch its Payment Passkey Service in the MENA region, starting with the UAE. The adoption of payment tools such as the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service aimed to support the region in advancing its digital economy while also serving the needs, demands, and preferences of consumers, who looked for simplified, yet secure experiences when conducting online purchases.
