Mastercard Launches Solution for Secure Digital Account Opening

Mastercard has launched a solution designed to help businesses implement secure digital account opening.

The company’s enhanced Open Banking for Account Opening provides account owner verification and identity insights in a single application programming interface (API), helping financial institutions and FinTechs in their digital account opening for digital wallets, new bank and investment accounts, distributions and account-based payments, Mastercard said in a Wednesday (May 10) press release.

“Our digital identity and open banking networks instill confidence on both sides of an interaction,” Mastercard Executive Vice President of Identity Solutions Chris Reid said in the release. “By securing our online ecosystem, we are delivering on our promise to bring more people and businesses into the digital economy.”

PYMNTS research has found that almost two out of every three consumers are comfortable opening new accounts digitally.

That is especially true among high-income consumers and younger consumers, according to “Account Opening and Loan Servicing in the Digital Environment,” a PYMNTS collaboration with Finicity, a Mastercard company.

Among consumers earning more than $100,000 a year, 72% said they were “very” or “extremely” comfortable opening an account using a web browser, and 74% said the same of using a mobile app. Among Generation Z consumers, 78% said they were “very” or “extremely” comfortable opening an account via mobile app.

The report also found that a key driver behind consumers’ growing interest in opening financial accounts online is convenience.

Mastercard’s Open Banking for Account Opening makes opening an account simpler, faster and safer by verifying a consumer’s account ownership and identity in real time and pre-filling account and routing data to minimize errors, according to the press release.

The company’s newly enhanced solution is powered by consumer-permissioned data from open banking, machine learning and fraud prevention programs, the release said.

“Digital account opening is central to onboarding new customers and growing a business,” Mastercard Executive Vice President of Global Open Banking and API Jess Turner said in the release. “Mastercard is uniquely positioned to help FinTechs and banks onboard customers safely and seamlessly to accelerate growth while protecting themselves and consumers from the risks of fraud and false declines.”