November 3, 2021 : Mastercard, has joined with  CRED, the platform for creditworthy individuals, brands, and institutions, tolaunch  Card-on-File tokenization services on the app using Mastercard’s tokenization platform MDES for Merchants (M4M).
MDES for Merchants enables a smooth and secure shopping experience, while future-proofing their business. It ensures that a cardholder’s payment data is safely stored and maintained by replacing card numbers with an encrypted digital token. These digital tokens are unique to each consumer-to-business relationship and ensure that the card data is not exposed in the transaction value chain. Hence, these details cannot be intercepted or stolen.The latest guidelines on card-tokenization services, issued by The Reserve Bank of India in September 2021, are an extension of the tokenization framework to support merchants and payment aggregators. It converts saved cards in the ecosystem into tokens with an explicit consent from the customer. With an aim to make card-based digital payments more secure and frictionless for transactions on mobile phones, tablets, laptops/desktops, wearables, IoT devices etc, this service also significantly increases convenience for consumers and creates efficiencies for merchants. This process will reduce the risk to a minimum for card payments. 
Says Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED: “With an increase in the number of consumers making payments and purchases online, there is a need to build trust in digital transactions. Tokenization is an important step towards ensuring convenient and secure digital payments and we are glad to be working with ecosystem partners like Mastercard to educate members on the benefits of this move, while enabling them to tokenize their cards in a convenient manner.”
Adds Vikas Varma, Chief Operating Officer, South Asia, Mastercard“Online shopping and digital payments become essential in people’s daily lives. The new tokenization framework safeguards card-based digital payments while offering consumers a convenient way to pay, as they do not need to enter card details every time they pay on a digital platform. CRED is Mastercard’s first customer to adopt this service in India. To ensure a safe and seamless payment experience, CRED will also offer other Mastercard services such as Identity Check Express and SEND for card bill payments.”
Apart from tokenization services, CRED is integrating Mastercard’s Identity Check Express, a next-generation, mobile-first authentication solution that aims to redefine the e-commerce journey for Indian consumers. The solution will help eliminate unnecessary friction and enhance the security of online transactions. CRED has also availed SEND service of Mastercard, to ensure secure payment of credit card bills in real-time. Furthermore, CRED is also the first to embed Mastercard’s sonic brand identity into its wallet. Each time a Mastercard cardholder pays their bill on the CRED platform, the distinct and memorable Mastercard melody will play, providing simple, seamless familiarity.