MasterCard IQ Series Minimizes False Payment Declines

Reinforcing its commitment towards a secure cashless environment and superior experience through secure and innovative solutions, MasterCard launched the IQ Series at its Global Risk Leadership Conference in Dubai today. 

Designed to harness real-time insights and intelligence, MasterCard IQ Series’ suite of solutions empower card issuers and merchants to authorize transactions with increased accuracy and limit fraudulent activity. The solution is now available to financial institutions, businesses and merchants across the Middle East and Africa. 

“In today’s digital world, consumers are increasingly more aware about safety and convenience, therefore balancing the growing desire for greater security while maintaining the ease of making payments is important,” said Raghu Malhotra, president of Middle East and Africa, MasterCard. “Our IQ series leverages advanced technology and insights to help deliver consumers a convenient, uninterrupted checkout experience.” 

The initial two products developed under the series – Authorization IQ and Assurance IQ – are aimed at optimizing the payment authentication process, leading to fewer declines in legitimate transactions and creating more stable revenues for issuers and merchants. 

In addition to hampering quality experience, false fraud assessments prove to be a financial burden, as is evidenced by a research that estimates the value of false transaction declines in the United States of America to be USD 118 billion per year – thirteen times more than total amount lost annually to actual card fraud (USD 9 billion), according to Javelin Strategy & Research. 

Authorization IQ provides card issuers with relative behavioural insights on spending, such as total spending on an account compared to others in the country, spending in a particular segment, and frequency of card usage compared over an extended period of time. 

Assurance IQ enables the distribution of positive e-commerce data indicators between stakeholders. A balanced reputation assessment is achieved considering not only transactional risk indicators but also positive indicators better determining the authenticity of a transaction. 

Both products supplement the need for a robust enhanced data exchange network between financial institutions, merchants, and issuers to understand the digital footprint and behaviour of accounts better. The application of this data in real-time decisions is critical to drive an enhanced consumer experience in increased approval rates and lowered operational impact, without increasing the fraud loss exposure of our network stakeholders. 

The MasterCard IQ Series complements the company’s existing multi-layered approach to safety and security across physical and digital payments with innovative solutions, like EMV/chip payment method for payments, SecureCode+ technology for online transactions, and MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES). 

“As the payments environment becomes dynamic and mirrors trends in new technology, MasterCard is dedicated to strengthening the security of transactions, and delivering greater peace of mind to its customers across the Middle East and Africa in its pursuit for a World Beyond Cash,” said Malhotra.