M-payment: MasterCard and Telefónica naming their JV Wanda
- The Joint Venture founded by MasterCard and Telefónica Brazil (subsidiary of the Spanish mobile operator) to lead the development of mobile financial services in about twelve South American markets, has been named Wanda, with catch-phrase “Tu dinero móvil”.
- The envisaged services are designed to ease the adoption of mobile payment on these markets and address the needs of over 87 million customers of Telefónica-owned brand Movistar. The mobile wallet will be made available for funds transfers, mobile airtime reload, bill payments, retail transactions, etc.. The wallet and associated prepaid account will be accessible worldwide at any time.
- Mobile service provider Mobile Payment Solutions (MPS) will be in charge of developing and implementing the m-wallet (technology and services).
- MasterCard and Telefónica believe Wanda could have a favourable impact on the economic development of South America as well as on the issue of financial inclusion in this area.
- MasterCard has been making several announcements on financial services accessibility-related issues these past months. For instance, it has recently launched a solution meant to provide banking services to underbanked customers through partnerships with mobile service providers Comviva, Sybase 365 and Utiba (see February 2012 Insight).
- Payment players now view Latin America as a land of opportunities; hence, international and national companies alike are now trying to gather some shares in this market. Paymotech, for instance –already implanted in Argentina and in Ecuador – has recently launched its mobile wallet Paytoo in Mexico (see February 2012 Insight).