Mastercard’s Ethoca Delivers Digital Receipts In Expanded Microsoft Partnership

Customers of Microsoft can access digital purchase receipts through Canadian tech services firm Ethoca, a subsidiary of Mastercard, and its partnerships with a growing matrix of banks.

Ethoca’s Digital Receipts service offers transparency about online purchases to make it easier for people to keep track of what they buy. Customers sometimes don’t recall making a purchase or forgot a family member did. This confusion causes false claim rates of 80 percent or higher, Ethoca said in a statement on Wednesday (April 15).

“Ethoca is thrilled to be working with Microsoft to solve this challenge upstream — in the bank’s mobile app — where consumers have the instant purchase clarity they need to avoid making a false claim,” Keith Briscoe, chief marketing and product officer at Ethoca.

“The only way the industry can solve this growing and costly problem is through industry-wide collaboration between card issuers, merchants and card brands sharing purchase insight in real time through the channels consumers know and trust,” he added.

The growing number of false claim disputes are responsible for the expanding volume of global chargebacks, expected to top 615 million by next year, Mastercard said. It estimates that each dispute costs $15-$70 for both card issuers and merchants.

People want more information about their purchases, according to a recent Aite Group study commissioned by Ethoca. Some 93 percent of respondents said it would be helpful to have more information about transactions, including a picture of the printed receipt.

Ethoca’s digital receipts solution enables Microsoft and other businesses to provide this purchase information to their customers via the mobile app for the bank that issued the card. Ethoca said that tool is responsible for a 15-30 percent decline in the number of inbound transaction inquiries. The solution is now in place at a top five bank in the U.S. with plans for expansion throughout 2020, both in the U.S. and globally.

“This initiative aligns with Microsoft’s commitment to providing the best customer experience at every occasion, including access to Microsoft’s own Azure-based digital receipt and purchase information. Better information about the transaction at the moment when any doubt arises — typically when the customer is checking the card statement — can be effective for online purchases,” said Stuart Dwyer, payments director at Microsoft.

“It also ties in with Microsoft’s commitment to provide customers with insights on how to prevent fraud by using tools such as spending notifications or spending limits — available, for example, via Xbox family settings. Microsoft is also actively collaborating with the industry to address the broader problem presented by first-party misuse and fraud to enhance the purchase experience for all customers,” he added.

Mastercard acquired Ethoca in March 2019 to identify and resolve fraud in digital commerce and advance online protection. It is being integrated into Mastercard’s suite of fraud management and security products.