This spring, the company will launch a new initiative designed to lower the risk of fraud or cyberattacks before issuers and processors might notice the threat.

Named Safety Net, the initiative will provide “an independent layer of security on top of the tools and policies of financial institutions, by monitoring and blocking specific transactions based on selected criteria”.

Using algorithms, the application is able to score and monitor different channels, geographies, and business sectors, intervening only in high risk cases to block fraudulent activity, said Biometrics Journal. 

MasterCard is also working with First Tech Federal Credit Union on a pilot program that will use a combination of facial and voice recognition, as well as fingerprint matching, to authenticate consumers’ identity.

Visa will introduce the “tokenization” of credit card numbers for online transactions. It will update its online payment service, Visa Checkout, with the tokenization technology by this spring.

The measure will replace the real 16-digit payment card number with a substitute number dubbed as a “token,” in which Visa’s transaction analytics will be able to detect subsequent use of a stolen token and prevent a fraudulent payment, said Biometrics Journal. 

Visa is working toward a larger goal of replacing the card data stored by e-commerce retailers with tokens whose use will be limited to a particular merchant.

The measure will then prevent thieves who steal tokenized credit card data from one merchant site from being able to use it to make a purchase on another merchant site, said Biometrics Journal.