Visa to introduce Credentials on File in India

Back in August of last year, India was the victim of a major data breach which resulted in the exposure of data for 35 million consumers, since then the Reserve Bank of India has updated its guidelines to mandate tokenization through Indian Merchants. Visa has taken charge and released information on their intention to launch Credentials on File (CoF) which goes above and beyond the already known tokenization methods. Credentials on File is an agreement between the customer, their issuing bank, and the acquiring bank, when a customer provides their credit card details to a merchant they have the choice to have those credentials stored and charged by the Merchant without their presence. When a Merchant and customer enter into a Credentials on FIle relationship the issue provides the merchant with an issuer ID which can be stored along with the real credit card therefore when the card is charged the Merchant just provides the issuer ID in replace of the CVV to validate the customers’ approval of the transaction. Visa will be the first card brand to launch the CoF framework in India, after receiving an implementation deadline of December 31st from the Reserve Bank of India. The Credentials on File framework is readily available on platforms like Grofers, BigBasket, and MakeMyTrip, already bringing convenience to clients when going through the checkout process. CoF is already being used in many countries, and bringing it to Indian, will have a positive effect on the country’s e-commerce businesses. Credentials on File encourages a trustworthy relationship between customers and eCommerce platforms by creating further steps in safety for payment data being collected and showing care for customer payment data storage.