mpass In-store

• German carriers Telefónica O2 Germany, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone have added MasterCard PayPass stickers to their mpass service. Basically designed to enable e- and m-payments, the offer will be encompassing contactless POS purchases at PayPass equipped merchants.

• In this context, Telefónica has partnered with Wirecard, in charge of processing NFC payments.

• Primarily proposed in Android, the free mpass app has also been made available in iOS and can be used with PayPass compatible POS devices.

• Potential users may subscribe online. Once their mpass account created, an NFC sticker is automatically sent. When making payments, they may choose from two options: using their preloaded mpass account or debiting their card account from the corresponding amount per transaction.

• This feature, first proposed at Hamburg Star gas stations, is to be extended to Conrad Electronic (Munich) and O2 locations by the end of the year.

Source: Press release - 27 September and 9 October 2012

• mPass has been granted EMI license in August 2011, and made their intent to include contactless payment quite clear at the time (see August 2011 Insight). This German contactless initiative comes in as Deutsche Telekom recently partnered with MasterCard on large-scale mobile payment with contactless launches even planned this year (see July 2012 Insight).

• Yet another example, TARGOBANK (subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel-CIC) and E-Plus have joined forces for dedicated trials relying on MasterCard PayPass stickers just as well (see July 2012 Insight).

• These short-lived media are among the cheapest means to increase NFC adoption.