Research from Mastercard has found that 85% of consumers in Latin America prefer biometric authentication over traditional passwords for online transactions.

Mastercard is set to introduce its Payment Passkey in the region, a service designed to streamline secure online payments for shoppers.

This method “will use device-based biometrics, such as fingerprints or facial scans, to replace other methods like one-time passwords (OTPs),” and will be available in January 2025.

This is through a partnership between Mastercard, Sympla and Yuno, a payment orchestrator founded by Colombians Juan Pablo Ortega and Julián Núñez.

“Market leadership”

Juan Pablo Ortega, Co-Founder, Yuno commented: “Payment passkeys align perfectly with Yuno’s strategy to quickly adopt and implement innovations.

“Being the first orchestrator to deploy them with Mastercard demonstrates our commitment to market leadership.

“By simplifying authentication and reducing friction in the payment process, payment passkeys drive higher conversion rates, more satisfied customers and a better payment experience for everyone,” Ortega concluded.

Biometrics for customers

Mastercard says that it aims to simplify e-commerce, revolutionize the consumer experience and make users less vulnerable to online scams like phishing, SIM swapping and message interception – which have become increasingly common with OTPs.

The company also sees this as essential, given the high demand for e-commerce and the region’s significant retail sales, which are on track to reach $180 billion in 2024.

“Convenience and security coexist”

Silvana Hernández, Executive Vice President of Core Products, Mastercard Latin America and the Caribbean stated: “Mastercard is committed to building a payment experience where convenience and security coexist.

“Partnering with Sympla and Yuno marks a significant step forward in advancing payment authentication in the region,” Hernández added.

Tokenization technology

According to Mastercard, the Payment Passkey service employs tokenization technology to replace the primary account number (PAN) with a token.

This ensures that card information is not shared with third parties and is useless to fraudsters in the event of a data breach.