Is Payment Tokenization Ready for Primetime?

This white paper will share what the group learned by providing an overview of the current U.S. payment tokenization landscape for mobile and digital commerce (vs. physical card payments); and describe how the different tokenization systems interoperate and the status of their implementation plans to a broader audience of industry stakeholders, policymakers, and regulators. Success in implementing a secure framework using tokenization and other security tools will require extensive collaboration among participants to ensure that consumers have a cohesive solution. Moreover, it should be a solution based on agreed upon standards, rules, and practices that ensure seamless interoperability regardless of the mobile device, mobile operating system (OS), financial institution (FI), payment network, merchant, or wallet provider involved in the consumer’s desired transaction.

Generally, the foundation of a successful tokenization effort is one that is open to multiple business models; protects payment credentials and related transaction information; meets the needs of consumers and merchants for speed, ease of use and consistency; is standards-based; and supports long-term viability.