One97 Communications announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Payments Services, has become the first in the industry to enable merchants with Alternate ID (ALT ID) based Guest Checkout solution across networks. This allows customers to checkout as a guest without saving sensitive card details on an ecommerce/merchant website for a transaction.

The Guest Checkout solution cuts down the long process of signing up for an account on the merchant website by sharing additional information and makes purchases faster. To enable ALT ID transactions, Paytm has integrated with card networks to generate alternate ID for guest checkout transactions.

Guest checkout solution enhances cardholders safety in an online transaction and protects from potential data breaches. The solution creates an Alternate ID for customers, wherein he will enter his complete card details to process a transaction instead of entering account details and password for an occasional purchase. This solution eliminates the risk of data breach as until now these card details were being passed to subsequent entities in the transaction flow to authorize and process the transaction. Also, Paytm offers an easy integration to enable this service on merchants' websites.

The solution meets RBI's guidelines as the regulator had mandated that entities involved in card transaction processing cannot save sensitive card credentials for guest checkout transactions, and that the card number has to be replaced by an Alternate ID associated with card information, by 31 October 2023.