Bluefin Partners With Visa to Offer Network Tokenization

Bluefin Payment Systems LLC is leveraging Visa Inc.’s technology to provide network tokenization through its ShieldConex vaultless-tokenization service. Bluefin will integrate directly with Visa to provide network tokens across card brands. In addition, Bluefin’s payment gateway, PayConex, will have the ability to process network tokens.

ShieldConex protects payment and ACH account data and personally identifiable information, as well as health information entered through an application programming interface or iFrame, which is used to insert a piece of content from another source into a Web page. Vaultless tokenization generates tokens using standards-based algorithms and encryption keys and eliminates the need for a token vault or vault database.

Unlike traditional tokenization—a process in which strings of data that would be meaningless to thieves stand in for credit and debit card data and are issued by a merchant acquirer or payment processor—network tokenization enables card brands to issue a token and a unique transaction cryptogram. The process makes network tokens interoperable across acquirers, payment processors, and payment gateways.

Expected benefits of network tokenization include an improved payment and checkout experience, an increase in authorization rates and, according to Visa, a 28% average reduction in fraud, Bluefin says.

“The acceleration of digital commerce and card-not-present transactions has underscored requirements for secure payment processing and data input,” Tim Barnett, chief information officer for Bluefin, says in a prepared statement. “We are excited to provide our partners and merchants with greater flexibility around how they tokenize cardholder data through the addition of this network-tokenization option.”

As the digital economy grows the need for tokenized card and account data is also increasing. Since 2019, the cost of every dollar lost to fraud for merchants in the United States has risen from $3.13 to $3.75, a19.8% increase, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ 2022 True Cost of Fraud Study: Retail and Ecommerce.

“Tokenization is an imperative aspect of a safe and secure digital economy,” Ansar Ansari, global head of platform products for Visa says in a statement. “Bluefin’s collaboration with Visa helps not only secure payments, but also improves customer experience.”