MasterCard announced the launch of two new services that raise the bar on consumer experience and everyday peace of mind for cardholders across Asia Pacific: MasterCard IQ series, pioneering solutions designed to reduce the rising number of card transactions being falsely declined and Automatic Billing Updater service (ABU), which securely communicates account changes from banks and merchants to ensure a seamless experience for cardholders’ recurring payments.

“In today’s digital world, consumers are increasingly concerned about safety and convenience. Balancing the growing desire for greater security while maintaining the ease of making payments, these new offerings add to the recent expansion of our global Zero Liability promise and underscores our commitment to providing cardholders with greater confidence when paying with their MasterCard,” said MasterCard Senior Vice President Network, Processing and Security Solutions Asia/Pacific Rama Sridhar. 

MasterCard IQ series - Make informed authorization decisions 
Delivering greater convenience through real-time intelligence, the MasterCard IQ series is a suite of pioneering solutions that help empower issuers and merchants to make more informed authorization decisions. 

According to Javelin research, the value of false declines per year has hit US $ 118 billion – more than 13 times the total amount lost annually to actual card fraud (US $ 9 billion). The new MasterCard IQ series – the latest tier in the company’s multi-layered approach to tackling safety and security – is available to issuers and merchants globally and supports all MasterCard brands and products – to deliver a convenient and uninterrupted payment experience for consumers.

The MasterCard IQ series includes two core products that provide insights into cardholder spending habits in a split-second:

• Authorization IQ – provides issuers with segmented account spending insights to help them make more informed authorization decisions. Unique and historical behaviour of the card is used to predict and assess risk against a current transaction, decreasing false declines.

• Assurance IQ – enables the exchange of vital eCommerce information from the merchant about the circumstances of a transaction. This enables MasterCard provide a blended risk score about the transaction to the issuer, enhancing confidence in the approval. 

ABU - Seamless service for recurring charges
Each payment account maintains specific details to help ensure issuers can manage accounts using the latest technologies and security protections. However, when accounts expire or new accounts are issued, this process requires cardholders to communicate updated account information to retailers with whom they store their accounts in digital wallets or have recurring bill payments such as monthly subscriptions. To eliminate this inconvenience – and the potential to interrupt service – MasterCard now offers its global ABU service in Asia Pacific. Using ABU, MasterCard securely systematizes communication of account changes from banks to merchants, enabling merchants to provide cardholders with a seamless experience month-after-month and retain their valuable business.

At MasterCard, safety comes first, as demonstrated by a long history of leading the industry through investment and innovation that delivers multiple layers of technology – like EMV, tokenization, biometrics, location alerts, MasterCard Safety Net – to protect each and every transaction. As a result, MasterCard has become the safest, simplest and smartest way to pay.