Launched in the US last year, Safety Net acts as an external layer of security on top of issuing banks' own systems, making the most of MasterCard's global view of transactions to identify potential fraud issues in real-time.

The firm will automatically enrol issuers for the service, which can take targeted measures - such as blocking specific transactions - to provide protective controls on an issuer’s behalf.

MasterCard says that it uses sophisticated algorithms and monitors different channels and geographies to provide the most appropriate level of support for each market and partner, adding new protection into the payment system without any disruptions to the network.

Ajay Bhalla, enterprise security solutions president, MasterCard, says: "With Safety Net, we are screening billions of transactions twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, protecting our issuers against events like a cash out attacks and misuse of payment accounts."

Separately, MasterCard is also prepared to bring tokenisation services to commercial credit card issuers, enabling corporations and business travellers to load corporate cards with mobile wallet services and pay with their handsets.

"Digitizing commercial payments will help make business travel even more convenient without sacrificing any of the core controls and value," says Sachin Mehra, EVP, global commercial products, MasterCard.

MasterCard rival Visa has also stepped up its focus on cybersecurity with the launch of a new Cyber Intelligence Service in conjunction with FireEye. The service will provide merchants and issuers with access to a Web portal that includes timely alerts on malicious actors, attack methods and trends, and in-depth forensic analysis from recent data breaches.