The move to private label cards comes on the heels of Apple opening up its digital wallet to store cardholders. Tokenisation is seen as a key security feature in the digital payments arena by replacing a card's primary account number with a random numerical sequence unique to a specific mobile device, merchant, transaction type, or channel.

Synchrony Financial and Citi Retail Services, two of the largest issuers of retailer store cards, have been signed up to the MasterCard programme.

Margaret Keane, president and CEO of Synchrony Financial, says: “It was recently announced that our retail partner, JCPenney, will be among the first to offer its private label credit cardholders the ability to checkout with Apple Pay later this year. We are committed to working with our retail partners, MasterCard, and key payments industry players to preserve the benefits of our private label credit cards and patented Dual Cards in third-party digital wallets.”

Additionally, MasterCard announced it will offer tokenisation services to merchants with app, e-commerce, and recurring billing card-on-file programmes. The service will enable the card issuing banks to replace MasterCard credit, debit and prepaid card account numbers stored on file with a new 16-digit number that can be tied to a specific merchant account.

Beyond enabling greater security, when a consumer’s card number or its expiration date changes, the tokens stored with all of their various merchants do not have to be updated, allowing for seamless, ongoing payments.

“Merchants continue to innovate in many different and compelling ways for consumers to buy from them, including in app, e-commerce, recurring and subscription-based payment environments. These new experiences all involve storing card numbers,” says Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard chief emerging payments officer. “MasterCard is helping merchants capitalise on mobile payments, ensure the best possible consumer experience for their consumers and encourage both repeat business and customer loyalty.”