M-payment: MasterCard Targeting Underbanked Customers
- MasterCard launches a new solution to provide banking services to underbanked populations and partners with mobile services providers Comviva, Sybase 365 and Utiba for the “Mobile Money Partnership Program”.
- Among the available products, MasterCard allows them to make mobile international in-store transactions, transfer funds (to non-MasterCard customers, too), pay bills, use a prepay card or virtual card accounts (for online payments).
- These solutions are already installed or currently being deployed with over 200 mobile operators and banks which would represent more than one billion customers.
- Like some of its rivals, MasterCard is targeting underbanked and unbanked populations (according to MasterCard, “about half of the world’s households have bank accounts – and an even lower proportion in developing countries” and “seven out of 10 people worldwide have a mobile phone”). For likewise reasons, in November 2011 Visa launched a mobile prepaid account relying on Fundamo’s technology (mobile specialist it acquired in June 2011 –see June 2011 Insight). The deployment of Visa’s MTN Mobile Money started in Nigeria an in Uganda with telecom operator MTN Group.
- Worldwide card networks believe that the growth of the prepaid market is directly linked to the underbanking situation: according to the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association 118.5 billion dollars could have been loaded on card accounts in 2012 (compared to 18.3 billion in 2009). This boom derives from the development of mobile media, and m-wallet in particular.