Mastercard enables CVC-less payments for tokenized cards in India

Mastercard on Thursday announced the introduction of Cardholder Verification Code (CVC)-less online transactions for its debit and credit cardholders who have tokenized their cards on merchant platforms. The move aims to reduce the checkout time and make virtual transactions hassle-free and more secure, Mastercard said.

CVC is the three-digit number printed on the back of debit and credit cards. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s tokenization guidelines, merchants who adopt tokenized payments will collect CVC only once, which is while tokenizing the card. From the second transaction onwards, cardholders will be required to select their tokenized card from the checkout page, confirm the one-time password (OTP) and complete the transaction without keying in CVC.

Several e-commerce players like Cashfree Payments and Zomato have already adopted CVC-less payments. By eliminating the need for CVC, merchants can expect benefits like higher authorization rates, reduced checkout abandonment, and enhanced customer payment experience.