The adoption of digital payments continues to rise, and with that, so does fraud. As of 2020, nearly 80% of Americans used at least one form of digital payment. Between 2020 and 2021, payment fraud attacks rose dramatically on digital wallets (200%), payment service providers (169%) and crypto exchanges (140%).
Today’s merchants will need to keep pace with the growth in digital payments, not only by offering methods their customers want to use, but also keeping sensitive customer data safe.
What’s the answer? Tokenization. Tokenization in payment processing involves swapping a primary account number (PAN) for a non-sensitive surrogate value. The process offers security and convenience that benefits all players in the payment ecosystem—and we’re only just starting to scratch the surface of tokenization’s value to the payments industry.
Tim Barnett, Bluefin’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), sat down with Digital Transactions to discuss the importance tokenization, and how implementing it can protect payment data, prevent data breaches and maintain customer loyalty.
“Every organization needs to offer omnichannel payment options to meet customer demands, but convenience can’t come at the expense of security. Hackers will target any industry where money is moved, and the consequences of inadequate security could take years to repair. Tokenization and biometric identification can help mitigate the effects of data breaches and payment fraud, while making digital payments more convenient along the way. However, to facilitate a more secure payment ecosystem, every organization needs to be on board.”
Read Tim’s full article to learn how merchants can use tokenization to secure their digital payments and their cybersecurity strategy.