10 million consumers worldwide sign on for MasterCard SecureCode

10.3 million MasterCard cardholders worldwide have signed on to use SecureCode, the security system designed to protect retailers from chargebacks, MasterCard says. Meanwhile, 48,000 merchants have put SecureCode on their sites, 2,903 issuers have signed on, as have 230 acquirers, MasterCard says.

SecureCode, which retailers run on their sites, causes a pop-up box to appear when customers are checking out. Cardholders are asked to enter a code that has been registered with their banks. The banks then validate the code.

MasterCard points out that 70% of e-commerce chargebacks are “cardholder unauthorized” because cardholders say, “I didn’t do it.” SecureCode reduces those chargeback and fraud costs, MasterCard says. In addition, 73% of consumers surveyed by MasterCard say that better security would influence their decisions to purchase online.