Commonwealth Bank and Westpac Unveil Big Payment Shift for Millions

2025-08-02 07:03:06

Commonwealth Bank
and
Westpac
will roll out a new payment option for millions of customers in the coming weeks.
Mastercard’s Click To Pay
allows you to pay online without having to manually type in all your payment details and is designed to stamp out
card-related fraud
, which costs Aussies more than $2 billion a year.

When
shopping online
, you normally have to input your name, 16-digit card number, expiry date and 3-digit CVC. This can open you up to
potential fraud
if the retailer is hacked and those card details are stolen, plus it can be time-consuming for those needing to make quick purchases.

Westpac confirmed to

Yahoo Finance

it would be the "first Australian bank" to automatically enable Click to Pay for customers from July 18, while Commonwealth Bank will follow shortly after from August.

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CBA Executive General Manager of Everyday Banking, Monica Wegner, said Click to Pay allowed customers to shop online without sharing their card details with online stores.

“It’s effectively, one click, select authenticate and done,” Wegner told

Yahoo Finance.

Westpac Managing Director of Consumer Finance, Duncan Woods, said the option would give customers a "fast, simple and secure" way to check out online.

"Your card details are tokenised and safely stored in Mastercard’s Westpac-specific directory — not with the merchant— making future purchases even easier," he said.

Under the system, your card is “tokenised”, meaning it will produce a unique token each time you pay.

When online shopping, you can use Click to Pay whenever you see the icon. You’ll then receive a one-time code or passcode to complete the transaction.

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Wegner said 90 per cent of customers used their CommBank cards for
online shopping
and the move will help protect customers from fraud threats.

“Our transaction data shows that card fraud rates are six times less when transactions use authenticated tokens like Click to Pay, rather than entering those details manually,” she said.

“This is something we think is both easier for our customers as well as something that will keep them a lot safer online, and protect them from fraud.”

Wegner said the other benefit was cutting down the time it takes to complete transactions, something customer Magdalena Zajac said would be beneficial for her.

The 42-year-old is passionate about going to concerts but has missed out on in-demand tickets in the past because it’s taken her too long to input her payment and other details.

“A lot of international acts that come to Australia, they are in high demand and getting tickets is quite tricky and obviously we don’t want to miss out,” she told

Yahoo Finance.

CBA flags move to numberless cards

Wegner said the bank was considering a move to
numberless debit and credit cards
in the future, something Mastercard has argued would help reduce fraud.

AMP became one of the first to introduce numberless cards in February
for its small business and everyday banking customers.

Richard Wormald, Mastercard’s Australasia division president, told

Yahoo Finance

numberless cards meant customers would no longer need to get their card out and put their number in, but would instead go to their banking app.

“In their banking app, they can create a new card number that’s actually a token behind the scenes,” he said.

“The consumer can then set it up with controls so they could say that it’s only allowed to be used at this retailer, or only for the next two weeks, or only for my holiday in Japan when I’m snowboarding… then it gets deleted.

“So if the retailer gets hacked with that single-use card, it’s useless. The bad actors that steal card data, they’re like businesses, so they look for a return, and if they’re stealing data and it’s not useful, there’s no value to it, they’ll stop doing it.”

Wormald has said he expects Commonwealth Bank and Westpac could issue cards without numbers in the next year or two. However, a Westpac spokesperson said the bank was "yet to make a decision" on the move.

Woods noted the bank was working on introducing "biometric authentication payment passkeys at checkout to make things even more secure and convenient".

Visa, which works with NAB and ANZ, also has the technology to issue numberless cards. NAB has said it is still working with the card company to see how it could roll out the development as seamlessly as possible, while ANZ said it was always looking for opportunities to protect customers against scams and fraud.

More than two million Australians experienced card fraud in the 2023-24 financial year, the latest
Australian Bureau of Statistics data
found. The total amount lost was $2.1 billion.

The net loss after any reimbursements were paid out was $477 million, with 72 per cent of fraud victims found to be fully reimbursed by their card issuer.

Click to Pay will roll out to CBA and Westpac debit and credit card customers in the coming weeks, but customers can still pay by inputting their details as usual if they wish.

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This article originally appeared on Yahoo Finance AU at
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/commonwealth-bank-reveals-major-payment-change-for-7-million-customers-024515648.html