Preparing for an Always-On, AI-Powered Future; Powered by Mastercard

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Aditi Sawhney, Senior Vice President, Security Solutions, Asia Pacific at Mastercard, recently highlighted the urgent cybersecurity challenges and transformative solutions shaping the future of digital payments. As the world hurtles towards 2030, cybersecurity is no longer simply about technology, it demands trust, resilience, and deep collaboration across the ecosystem.

Sawhney points out that the Asia Pacific is witnessing a surge in cyber-enabled fraud impacting consumers, businesses, and payment platforms. Incidents like card skimming are rising by around 10% each year, but today’s threats are far more sophisticated than traditional methods. Cybercriminals are compromising payment systems with advanced tactics, and fake online stores have sprung up across major markets like China, Japan, and India to harvest consumer data.

Moreover, up to 18 million fraudulent card-testing events occur annually, further threatening the financial ecosystem. These numbers aren’t just data points, they represent real people and businesses at risk. The rising tide of threats calls for shifting from reactive cybersecurity measures to proactive defence strategies and strengthened collaboration.

Sawhney identifies three major trends that will reshape cybersecurity and commerce by 2030:

The number of connected devices worldwide is expected to exceed 40 billion by 2030, including autonomous agents and connected accounts that transact on behalf of users. While this connectivity adds convenience and speed, it vastly increases the attack surface available to cybercriminals. Mastercard’s answer is an “always-on” cybersecurity approach, proactively securing transactions and identities quietly in the background. Their focus is on three pillars: 100% digital, tokenized, and authenticated transactions; removal of vulnerable magstripe and card data; and the introduction of quantum-safe encryption to protect card networks.

Advances in AI are driving a new era where autonomous agents can make purchases on behalf of consumers or manage business procurement independently. Mastercard’s Agent Pay program is designed to register and authenticate these AI agents, ensuring governance, transaction-level controls, and audit trails to prevent fraud. Additionally, Mastercard’s Merchant Risk Platform helps identify and remove fraudulent merchants early, protecting the ecosystem from emerging threats.

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 Geopolitical tensions and regulatory fragmentation are reshaping global cybersecurity standards. Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure rose 30% recently, signalling increased risks. In response, Mastercard is embedding cyber threat intelligence directly into transaction flows. By integrating Mastercard’s vast fraud data with threat intelligence from Recorded Future, which Mastercard acquired recently, financial institutions can move from fragmented responses to proactive, intelligence-led defence strategies.

Mastercard is pioneering multiple solutions to address these challenges:

• On-Demand Decisioning enables real-time transaction decisioning on Mastercard’s network. Financial institutions customize rules instantly, reducing false declines while prioritizing approvals for high-value customers. This technology smooths customer experiences by minimizing disruptions such as card reissues and adapting promptly to regulatory or fraud trend changes.

  
  

• Mastercard Threat Intelligence offers a unified platform combining global fraud insights with cybersecurity intelligence. This solution helps banks and issuers detect, prevent, and respond to cyber-enabled fraud faster and more holistically. By connecting data from cyber and fraud teams, the platform fosters collaboration, enabling early detection and action before losses occur.

  
  

• Tokenization and Password-Free Payments are part of Mastercard’s strategy to secure transactions without exposing sensitive card data. Eliminating manual card entry and using biometric or encrypted tokens reduces fraud risks while enhancing convenience, particularly in growing Asia Pacific markets.

In addition, Mastercard's TRACE technology supports network-level detection of fraudulent accounts and financial crime networks, further strengthening ecosystem-wide defences.

Sawhney emphasizes that successful cybersecurity relies on three foundational pillars: The first being Partnerships: Effective defense requires cooperation among banks, regulators, merchants, and technology providers. Sharing intelligence and threat data accelerates detection and mitigation. Secondly, Principles: Security and privacy must be embedded by design in all new technologies, safeguarding consumer trust and regulatory compliance. Lastly, Continuous Innovation: Mastercard commits to ongoing investments in identity verification, fraud detection, ecosystem-wide strategies, and emerging threat intelligence to stay ahead of cybercriminals.

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With cybercrime projected to cost the world $15 trillion annually by 2030, the stakes could not be higher. Mastercard’s vision aligns innovation with security to create a safer payments ecosystem where consumers transact with confidence, merchants grow their businesses securely, and the broader digital economy flourishes.

By focusing on always-on defense, AI-powered commerce, and intelligent threat management, Mastercard, under the leadership of Aditi Sawhney, is preparing the Asia Pacific region, and the world, for a future where commerce is seamless, secure, and resilient.