The credit card giant and telecom company have paired up to develop a new transaction solution.
MasterCard International and The Telefônica Group have just launched a new company called MFS, under a partnership between them that is designed to allow them to work together to create mobile payments solutions in Brazil.
The first product from MFS is currently set to be launched in April of next year.
That will consist of a pre-paid MasterCard account that can be accessed for mobile payments. The purpose is to allow individuals to be able to transfer funds to one another, as well as to pay for in-store purchases, to refill their smartphones, and to perform a number of other forms of financial transactions.
The main target for this mobile payments service are customers of Telefonica Vivo who don’t have bank accounts.
This is meant to provide those individuals with a new financial option. That said, even those customers who do have bank accounts already will be able to register to use the mobile payments service. According to a report from MasterCard Worldwide, customers will be able to transfer cash into their pre-paid accounts through the use of specific refill stations, which will be located in convenient places, such as newspaper stands and in supermarkets.
This mobile payments product functions on USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) technology, making it compatible with all GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) devices. This allows users to have access to real-time interactions. Moreover, the companies assert that the transactions using this service are entirely secure, as data such as passwords are not stored within the device and can therefore not be revealed to others while browsing.
According to the CEO of MFS Serviços de Meios de Pagamento Ltda., Marcos Etchegoyen, “The new product will provide ease of use, inclusion, control and security for millions of Brazilians, backed up by the reputation and financial strength of two major companies, MasterCard and Telefônica.” He described the mobile payments service by adding that “The pre-paid cell phone account opens the door for millions of Brazilians who own mobile phones but have never benefitted from electronic payments or current accounts.”
