Numberless Bank Cards Coming to Australia to Combat Fraud

European banks have been doing it for 5 years, but now an Australian bank has announced it’s adopting numberless debit cards and others are expected to follow.

Mastercard credit cards are displayed in this picture illustration taken on Dec. 8, 2017. Benoit Tessier/Reuters

AMP has become the first bank in Australia to announce it’s introducing numberless debit cards for its customers in a joint program with Mastercard, with others expected to follow.

Mastercard says it plans to end using the traditional 16-digit number on physical credit and debit cards by 2030, replacing it with tokenisation and biometric authentication.