Mastercard to phase out manual card entry for online payments in Europe by 2030

LONDON — The experience of paying for products and services online could feel a lot different in the coming years.

Starting from 2030, Mastercard will no longer require Europeans to enter their card numbers manually when checking out online — no matter what platform or device they're using.

Mastercard will announce Tuesday in a fireside chat with CNBC that, by 2030, all cards it issues on its network in Europe will be tokenized.

In other words, instead of the 16-digit card number we're all accustomed to using for transactions, this will be replaced with a randomly generated "token."

The firm says it's been working with banks, fintechs, merchants and other partners to phase out manual card entry for e-commerce by 2030 in Europe, in favor of a one-click button across all online platforms.

This will ensure that consumers' cards are secure against fraud attempts, Mastercard says.

Users won't have to keep entering passwords every time they try to make a payment, as Mastercard is introducing passkeys that replace passwords.

It will also enable customers to make one-click payments at checkout using biometric authentication with a thumbprint.

Cards stored in a merchants' page or electronic wallet via tokenization can be automatically updated wherever they're stored when they're replaced or renewed.

Mastercard says 100% tokenization across e-commerce sites will reduce fraud rates dramatically.

According to market research firm Juniper Research, losses from online payment fraud are expected to exceed $91 billion by 2028 — totaling more than $362 billion globally over the next five years.

Adoption of tokenization, Mastercard says, has been increasing at a rate of 50% each year and now secures about 25% of all e-commerce transactions globally