Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) and American Express Australia today announced a new collaboration to help merchants enrich and secure e-commerce and m-commerce transactions with tokenization. Rambus Token Gateway will enable global online merchants, payment service providers and acquirers to quickly and securely connect to the American Express Token Service and tokenize card-on-file e-commerce transactions. With this collaboration in place, Rambus is the first solution provider to offer an off-the-shelf retail token gateway solution with American Express embedded.

Tokenization mitigates fraud by replacing sensitive payment account information with a non-sensitive equivalent, known as a token, that cannot be used outside the scope of the original transaction. Designed to reduce complexity, the Rambus Token Gateway provides a single, easy-to-use interface which enables merchants to connect to tokenization services from various payment schemes in the payment industry.

Robert Tedesco, vice president, Global Consumer Services A/NZ at American Express said: “This new partnership with Rambus will mean merchants can offer our card members even more secure payment methods at the time of checkout. We’ll also to be able to offer merchants access to our digital payment capabilities such as Pay with Points and Smart Offers, to further build customer loyalty with their customers that use American Express cards. We look forward to expanding this relationship in the future to further improve the buying experience.”

Advantages for card issuers, acquirers, merchants and consumers

Because the American Express tokenization services have been integrated at the platform level in the Rambus Token Gateway, merchants will have access to all the current American Express capabilities along with new features as they are added, all without significant ad-hoc or custom work required.

• Customer convenience and confidence – Consumers no longer need to update card details following a card reissue, reducing frustration. Knowing that their card details are not shared with merchants will also increase trust and the number of consumers willing to shop online safely and securely.
• Quick time to market – Merchants reduce the need for end-to-end development activities and can launch a token-on-file initiative more quickly.
• Reduced fraud – Real card account numbers are replaced with tokens that are more secure and may help lower the risk of fraud.
• PCI compliancy – As merchants don’t have to store vulnerable data, their payment card industry (PCI) compliancy requirements are limited.
• Flexibility – Merchants can engage with payment service providers or acquirers of their choice while still benefiting from e-commerce tokenization.
• Cost savings – Token Gateway assures that merchants are constantly aligned with the latest card scheme tokenization specifications, eliminating the need for manual integration work.
• Single interface – Token Gateway provides a single interface to connect with all contracted token service providers, supporting a variety of messaging interfaces.

Jerome Nadel, SVP/GM of Payments and Ticketing and CMO, Rambus commented: “Fraud continues to rise for e-commerce transactions and we need to give consumers more secure payment methods without compromising usability. By facilitating the use of tokens online, merchants and card issuers can increase trust in transactions throughout the ecosystem to drive higher authorization rates and improved customer conversions, resulting in greater revenues.”

Merchants across the globe are able to benefit from this joint collaboration immediately. 

For more information on Rambus’ tokenization solutions, visit rambus.com/security/payments/.