Fraud Prevention: Mastercard Acquires Ethoca
FACTS
- Mastercard enters an agreement to acquire Ethoca, a global provider of technology solutions relying on collaborations between card issuers and e-merchants.
- No details as to the financial terms of this transaction have been disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close in Q2 2019.
- help merchants identify and deal with e-commerce fraud cases more quickly.
- Through this acquisition, and based on Ethoca’s technology, when a fraudulent transaction is detected, the information is automatically sent to the merchant so they can confirm it, stop delivery or reverse the transaction to avoid chargeback processes.
Ethoca: Key Figures
- issuing banks
- merchants
- 1.6 Bn alerts sent to merchants
- 7.3 Bn unpaid debt avoided
CHALLENGES
- A win-win agreement. Ethoca is a major asset for Mastercard considering their new IT strategy. Mastercard claims to intend to further boost the Canadian FinTech’s capabilities.
- Improving customer experience. According to a study by Juniper Research, merchants may lose nearly $130 billion to fraud over the next 5 years. In this context, Mastercard will rely on Ethoca’s technology to assist retailers through decreasing fraud levels. This should contribute to reducing the number of complaints while improving user experience.
MARKET PERSPECTIVE
- Mastercard acquired several fraud prevention specialists over the years. In April 2017, they bought out NuData Security, a FinTech focusing on online and mobile fraud prevention based on biometric patterns.
- Ethoca keeps growing more popular: less than three months ago, this FinTech announced a strategic partnership with Cartes Bancaires to launch a fraud prevention tool.