Stay in control in a world of billions of tokens

The number of tokenized payment credentials (often referred to as tokens) is going to increase substantially and fast in the coming years. Tokens have already shown to be successful as a secure and reliable replacement of PANs (Primary Account Number) in mobile HCE/NFC payments.

Because of the simplicity, enhanced security and the broad digital applications areas, the use of tokens are now expanding to other areas. Tokenization will no longer only be used to issue digital payment cards (tokens) to mobile devices, but will also include online merchants, Internet of Things (IoT), subscriptions and in-app payments, which will result in billions of tokens.

What is the benefit of tokens vs. Card-on-File?

The challenge with Card-on-File (CoF) is that consumers enter their card details everywhere they purchase goods and services online, and they eventually lose track of where those details are stored. Another challenge is that the consumer must update all stored CoF whenever he receives a new card from the bank. Unlike CoF, all tokens are preserved within something we call a token vault. This is a place that also holds the relationship between PANs and tokens. The concept of a token vault combined with the fact that a token is always generated for a specific wallet (device, merchant, other), makes it therefore possible to manage and keep control of all created tokens.

But first: how to provision these tokens?

There are several ways to provision tokens to merchants, IoT, OEM Pays (read a previous blog post about OEM here), mobile and other types of digital wallets. Most of these will support what is referred to as Push-provisioning. This feature allows the consumer to generate and push tokens using the Issuer’s app. MeaWallet is making it easy for banks to implement this feature through Mea Token Management SDK (Fact Sheet Mea Token Management). Mea Token Management SDK can be integrated directly into the Issuer’s app. It communicates with Token Service Provider(s) and ensures that the card gets tokenized and provisioned into any eligible wallet, merchant or device.

More control to the consumer with Mea Token Management

The consumer should be able to keep control of and manage all tokens that are created and issued. The customer can access these new features through his existing mobile- or online bank. Token Management is supported and incorporated in Mea Token Management SDK. It offers all the required functionality to retrieve and view all created tokens, as well as suspend or delete them. This gives the consumer complete control and the bank will increase traffic to the mobile- and online banking services.

Our mission at MeaWallet is to help our clients simplify mobile payments and support implementation. Our team is passionate about the subject and continually looking at the evolution and trends in the mobile payments space. We welcome your comments or invite you to get in touch directly with us at contact@meawallet.com