The ClearingHouse, a banking association and payment company comprised of 22 member banks, plans to test a dynamic credentialing solution designed to improve the safety and soundness of digital payments. The pilot will demonstrate the solution, which is designed to better safeguard customer account information, including card numbers, across multiple retailer, virtual wallet providers and other organizations.
From The ClearingHouse press release:
The pilot will test customers’ ability to use their mobile device to make a purchase within a mobile wallet and at the point of sale. The customer’s actual account number will be replaced by the issuing bank with a randomly generated temporary number, or dynamic credential, for processing the transaction. This protects a customer’s account information behind bank firewalls and lowers the potential for fraud in digital payments. Customer experience for payment transactions with mobile devices should not be impacted as the pilot is focused on the “behind the scenes” of a digital payment transaction.
The Clearing House says it will provide an update on the initiative as the pilot progresses.
The solution appears to be similar to single-use account numbers some issuers offer customers for use in conducting transactions online instead of their actual card numbers to improve security. Despite the availability of such a solution, however, few issuers offer it, possibility because of licensing fees and other reasons. With banks creating their own alternative, perhaps they can overcome at least some of the cost issue while also improving the issuer and consumer education necessary to increase use of such a service.
Click here to read more from the press release.