Consumer Trust in eCommerce and the Digital Economy - Ekata
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Surviving and Thriving the Digital Economy: Panel Wrap-Up – Mastercard Cyber Security Summit

September was a solid month for cyber security. Mere weeks after hosting the inaugural Mastercard Cyber and Security Summit in both Melbourne and Sydney, one of the largest cyber attacks in Australia’s history took place. As talks of reforms are being had in the wake of such a ransomware attack, one thing is clear. Consumer trust has never been more important. In fact, recent reporting suggests trust is a key factor for 81% of consumers.

Boasting extraordinary expertise from across Australia, Singapore, North America and the UK, two interactive panel discussions held a captive audience of professionals in ecommerce, digital payments, fintech, and financial services. Below we recap the conversations we had at our summit.

Thriving In The New Digital Economy

Moderated by Dima Katchalov, Risk Technology Leader Oceania, EY, this highly entertaining panel featured representatives from various acquisitions within the Mastercard fold; Ekata, RiskRecon, Ethoca and NuData. Together, they represent Mastercard’s mission in this new digital economy; going from “what we have always done” to “what can we do?”

As Jonathan Anastasia, Executive Vice President of Mastercard’s Crypto and Security Innovation division, stated, “It’s all about embedding and consuming expertise; broadening our reach, scale, and visibility to better serve our customers.”

Discussed was a range of perspectives and strategies to scale in digital channels, and the innovative technologies on hand. Also explored was a general navigation of consumer attitudes toward data and privacy, as well as the need to provide transparency and clarity to customers.

The delicate dance that is mitigating risk without impacting customer experience was top of mind (isn’t it always?) As Jonathan Ehret, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Risk, RiskRecon states, “You want zero fraud? Decline all transactions.”

He gives the classic iceberg analogy; the tip represents customer experience. Below the iceberg is where fraud mitigation processes come in. The key to not sinking the boat is strategic friction and consumer confidence. Trust is everything.

As Graeme Bullock, Global Head Business Development, Mastercard NuData Security, nicely wraps up, “Fraudsters are the best collaborators. To beat them at their own game, we must remember we are all on the same team. We aren’t playing singles tennis here – it’s doubles.”

Working together? Let the games begin.

What’s In Your Fraud Toolbox?

Moderated by Karthik Ramanathan, Senior Vice President C&I Solutions, Mastercard, Asia Pacific, this diverse panel represented merchants, payment providers, stakeholders, and more. Consumer education was a key talking point.

“14 year olds on TikTok know more than us,” emphasised a panelist, a General Manager of a leading, government-owned payments platform.

“These consumers of the future are shrewd – they will have a much better understanding of their digital footprint than (we) do.”

A Group Product Manager within the payments and digital identity space agreed,

“We see too many instances of misplaced trust. You don’t want your consumer to feel too comfortable. They need to question more.”

Interestingly, a recent global survey reports that not only did consumers create, on average, 15 new online accounts during the pandemic, some 44% do not plan to delete or deactivate these new accounts. This means we all have a much larger digital footprint than ever before, making us more vulnerable to data breaches and ransomware attacks.

As new payment options become more widely available, and digital wallets adopted, customers must also be enabled choice – without needing to jump through unnecessary hoops.

“People are ready for the technology – we have to provide it!”

While the usual toolkit capabilities were discussed – fire walls, passwords, biometrics, etc – the underlying message of this panel was to be proactive, not reactive. We were reminded to ask ourselves if our tools fit into the modern digital asset age. As one of our esteemed panelists stated, “The question is not ‘does this technology exist?’ it is ‘how can we best use this technology?'”

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