The features – which deliver greater convenience and real-time access to account information -- are offered to help protect issuers, merchants and cardholders from fraud.

“Our cardholders want even greater control of their money, no matter where or how they are spending,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of Enterprise Security Solutions at MasterCard. “For 50 years, we’ve developed new technologies that balance the need for increased security with the desire for greater convenience in payments. As these benefits become everyday features, consumers will receive even more protection and value from the MasterCard in their wallet– physical or digital.”

Knowing Where You Are: Mobile Location Alerts

To reduce frustrations associated with potential declines when using their card outside of “normal” routines, MasterCard is making verification of the cardholder as easy as turning on your mobile phone. In partnership with Zumigo, MasterCard will offer a mobile app-based solution that delivers location alerts triggered by pre-set digital boundaries whenever cardholders travel domestically and internationally.

This adds to the company’s ongoing activities with Syniverse which leverages mobile network roaming data to verify the cardholder’s location. Currently available for UK cardholders with phones through EE and other key mobile network operators, the program continues to expand to additional markets across the globe.

Seamless Service for Recurring Charges

Each payment card has an expiration date to help ensure the ability to update to the latest technologies and security protections. However, this has also meant that cardholders would need to update their account information for recurring subscriptions, monthly gym memberships and other recurring bill payments when the new card is issued. To eliminate this inconvenience – and the potential for an interruption in service – MasterCard will offer its Automatic Billing Updater (ABU) service globally to seamlessly provide the new account information.

Putting Cardholders In Control

Since 2007, MasterCard has offered the In Control platform, providing real-time account alerts via SMS or e-mail that help cardholders set spending limits and “turn on” or “turn off” their credit, debit and small business cards at certain merchants or in certain geographies.

Each issuing bank can choose the most appropriate features and benefits for their cardholders. The cardholders can then access In Control either through the bank’s mobile app and website or at a standalone site.

“Consumers who take advantage of security features like transaction monitoring, email alerts and credit freezes could see their stolen information being used for 75 percent longer by fraudsters,” said Al Pascual, senior vice president and head of fraud and security, Javelin Strategy & Research. “These tools will help detect fraud more quickly.”

Today’s news adds to the November 2014 global extension of the Zero Liability promise protecting consumer and small business cardholders from unauthorized transactions as of early second quarter 2016.

At MasterCard, safety comes first, as demonstrated by a long history of leading the industry through investment and innovation that delivers multiple layers of technology – like EMV, tokenization, biometrics, MasterCard Safety Net – to protect each and every transaction. As a result, MasterCard has become the safest, simplest and smartest way to pay.