MasterCard Gears Strategy in Europe Towards Mobile

It seems that 2012 is the year of mobile for MasterCard. Just this year the company has partnered in mobile payments initiatives in Poland, Italy, Turkey, the UK and Germany, through one of its largest European partnerships with Deutsche Telekom

The agreement with Deutsche Telekom will roll out mobile payments to an astonishing 93 million users across Europe. The first consumer rollout will take place in Poland later this year. Also this year German consumers will be introduced to mobile payments, initially in a trial with mobile phone tags and cards, continuing into the first half of next year with a mobile wallet service, which will also be open to other issuing banks and partners. Deutsche Telekom will issue the MasterCard products via its subsidiary company ClickandBuy, the owner of an e-money license. Products will also be launched in other European markets.

MasterCard’s association with Everything Everywhere will also target one of its largest mobile markets – 27 million UK users. The five-year partnership’s purpose is to develop mobile and digital payment solutions to present to Everything Everywhere’s customers.

One of the first products to launch through the partnership will be a co-branded pre-paid solution for mobile devices that allows customers to make payments using NFC technology. Over the course of the partnership, MasterCard and Everything Everywhere will expand its scope into other areas, including person-to-person money transfers, loyalty rewards and digital payment services that will enable consumers to have the same simple shopping experience whether they’re paying in-store, online or using their mobile device. In addition, the two companies will develop services that allow small business customers to accept payments using mobile devices, with more details to be announced later this year.

MasterCard will continue its mobile plans by building relationships with other mobile service providers and expects to launch many more mobile payment solutions in the coming years.