MasterCard has announced that it will begin automatically enrolling European issuers in its Safety Net technology which is designed to help protect banks and payment processors from hackers. Launched in 2014 in the United States, Safety Net acts as an external layer of security on top of issuing banks’ own systems and utilizes MasterCard’s significant international transaction base to identify potential fraud issues in real-time.
According to MasterCard, Safety Net uses sophisticated algorithms and monitors different payment channels and geographies to provide the most appropriate level of support for each market and each bank and payment processor. By adding Safety Net on top of existing systems, the technology can be used with minimal to no disruptions to current transaction processing. Commenting on the technology, Ajay Bhalla, enterprise security solutions president at MasterCard said,
“With Safety Net, we are screening billions of transactions twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, protecting our issuers against events like a cash out attacks and misuse of payment accounts.”
With payment fraud on the rise across Europe as transaction volume increases, banks and processors are looking for the suite of technology to help combat fraud but maximize transaction approvals. Given the minimal downside and significant upside for European banks and processors, adding MasterCard’s Safety Net technology to a broader fraud prevention suite could provide a successful mechanism to combat future fraud.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, Global Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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