You can now tokenise your debit/credit card via mobile and internet banking

You can now tokenise your debit and credit cards through internet and mobile banking too. It was earlier available only through merchant applications or websites only.

 RBI has also allowed CoFT through card issuing banks or institutions to provide cardholders with an additional choice to tokenise their cards for multiple merchant sites through a single process.

Tokenised card transaction is considered safer as the actual card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing, as per RBI.

For a CoF, a token is a 16-digit number unique for a combination of card, token requestor and merchant. Through tokenisation, the actual card details are replaced with token credentials that can be used only with the intended merchant.

Generation of CoF tokens for a card, through the card issuer or card network, will now be enabled through mobile banking and internet banking channels, at customers’ convenience, either on receipt of the new card or later.

The card issuer has to provide a complete list of merchants for whom it can provide tokenisation services. The cardholders will also select the merchants with whom he/she wishes to maintain tokens. (Alternatively – “The cardholder can make his selection from the list”).

The card token so issued may be either by the card network or the issuer or both. But tokenisation will need to be done only with explicit customer consent, and with additional factor authentication ( AFA) validation. 

If the cardholder selects multiple merchants for which the card is to be tokenised, AFA validation may be combined for all the merchants.

RBI implemented the tokenisation facility on October 1, 2022.