Ethoca partners with Microsoft to give customers easy access to digital receipts

The solution is live with a top-five US bank, with plans for further global expansion throughout the year. Ethoca said the service has been shown to reduce transaction legitimacy inquiries from consumers by 15 to 30%

Mastercard company Ethoca, the provider of a counter-fraud and chargeback management system for banks and merchants, has partnered with Microsoft to give its customers more information about their transactions.

Microsoft customers will now enjoy simple access to their digital purchase receipts through their banks’ mobile applications, thanks to Ethoca’s Digital Receipts service.

The service enables businesses such as Microsoft to make information, including a picture of the printed receipt, available to their customers through card issuing banks currently enrolled on Ethoca’s network.

The solution is live with a top-five US bank, with plans for further global expansion throughout the year. Ethoca said the service has been shown to reduce transaction legitimacy inquiries from consumers by 15 to 30%, a growing phenomenon that accounts for an increasingly large share of global chargeback volumes estimated to reach more than 615 million by 2021, according to Mastercard, citing data from Aite Group.

Ethoca chief marketing and product officer Keith Briscoe said: “Ethoca is thrilled to be working with Microsoft to solve this challenge upstream—in the bank’s mobile app where consumers have the instant purchase clarity they need to avoid making a false claim.”

“The only way the industry can solve this growing and costly problem is through industry-wide collaboration between card issuers, merchants and card brands sharing purchase insight in real time through the channels consumers know and trust.”

 “This initiative aligns with Microsoft’s commitment to providing the best customer experience at every occasion, including access to Microsoft’s own Azure-based digital receipt and purchase information,” added Stuart Dwyer, payments director at Microsoft. “Better information about the transaction at the moment when any doubt arises—typically when the customer is checking the card statement —can be effective for online purchases.”

Mastercard acquired Ethoca last year, with the financial services giant citing its ambition to strengthen its own suite of fraud management and security products and help merchants and card issuers benefit from lower operational costs by reducing fraud at the source.

At the time of its acquisition, Ethoca, whose network allows fraudulent transactions to be identified and reported in near real-time so that merchants can act and avoid the chargeback process, worked with more than 5,000 merchants and 4,000 financial institutions.

Image: Shutterstock

Mark Dugdale