In brief

3 Mar 2021

Samsung Electronics, Samsung Cards, and Mastercard have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a biometric card.

The card will feature a built-in fingerprint scanner to authorise transactions securely at in-store payment terminals.

The partners say they aim to provide faster and more secure payment experiences.

The biometric authentication capability will allow safer interactions with reduced physical contact points. It will do this eliminating the need to enter a PIN on a keypad.

It will also add an extra layer of security to currently available credit cards. Namely the verification of the cardholder’s identity via a unique fingerprint.

The biometric cards will adopt a new security chipset from Samsung’s System LSI Business. It will integrate several key discrete chips, streamlining the overall component design and enabling more efficient development.

The cards will be able to be used at any Mastercard chip terminal or point of sale (POS) terminal.

1 Mar 2021

Mastercard has made a capital investment in an African American led mobile-first banking platform Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi) to offer underserved communities access to offer alternate financial services.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The move is part of the New York-based card giant’s $500m commitment to help close the racial wealth and opportunity gap across America.

The commitment includes products, services, technology and financial support. It also includes concentrated investments that will focus on providing Black-owned businesses and Black people access to affordable financial tools and capital.

Mastercard vice chairman and president of Strategic Growth Michael Froman said: “By investing resources and capital directly in Black and minority-led companies like MoCaFi, we can build the capacity of those with a direct connection to underserved communities and help them to scale.”

With the capital injection from Mastercard, MoCaFi intends to expand its card programmes and solutions to meet the needs of the underserved and help offer banking, credit building, and wealth coaching services to the underbanked.

25 Feb 2021

European banks are working on plans to establish a pan-European payment network by 2025 to challenge the dominance of Mastercard and Visa in the eurozone.

The European Payments Initiative (EPI), which was launched in July last year, is seeking technical partners for the project.

EPI, which became an interim company in December, has 22 European banks as shareholders.

The list of its partners includes Deutsche Bank, UniCredit, BNP Paribas, ING, Société Générale, and Sabadell.

Speaking at an online event, EPI chief executive Martina Weimert said: “We can bring choice to consumers but also to merchants in the future.

“This will give us and for the whole European economy more sovereignty, more independence, becoming masters of our own destiny here.”

European banks have a window until December to commit to the implementation of the card and digital payments network over the next three years.

23 Feb 2021

UK-based Lloyds Banking Group is enabling its credit card customers to use Mastercard’s Open Banking Connect service.

The offering is open to customers of the group’s Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank brands.

Users can access their credit card bills through their mobile app and withdraw funds directly from their account.

Leveraging Mastercard’s Open Banking Connect service, users can initiate a PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) payment and pay their credit card balance.

Lloyds Banking Group Consumer Finance MD Elyn Corfield said: “We are constantly looking for new ways to offer our customers security, choice and convenience and this partnership with Mastercard allows us to do just that.

“We want to make it quick and easy for our customers to pay their credit card bills in just a few clicks, safe in the knowledge that their payments are completely secure.”

Mastercard’s Open Banking Connect service offers third party service providers with one connection to financial institutions’ open banking functionality irrespective of their API standard or implementation.

23 Feb 2021

US-based non-bank credit card firm Mercury Financial has joined forces with Spirit Airlines to introduce a co-branded credit card.

Called the Free Spirit Points Mastercard, the new proposition provides rewards and benefits to a previously untapped customer segment of the carrier.

These include extra points for purchases on the carrier, which caters to the US, the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as a point for every dollar in purchases.

At the same time, it offers users the ability to create a Points Pool to combine points of up to eight additional Free Spirit loyalty programme members to use toward redemptions. The introductory offer is 10,000 bonus points upon the fulfilment of minimum transaction requirements.

Moreover, points do not expire or get capped if the account is open. Besides, cardholders are not charged foreign transaction fees and annual fees.

The latest tie-up reflects Mercury Financial’s expansion into the co-branded credit card space for the near-prime segment.

Mercury Financial is the largest non-bank credit card company in the US.

22 Feb 2021

Cámara de Compensación Electrónica (CCE) has tapped ACI Worldwide and Mastercard to accelerate financial institutions’ access to Mastercard’s instant payment service in Peru.

Mastercard’s service is set to enter industry testing in Peru later this year. Its aim is to offer central infrastructure, payments localisation, and access solutions to central banks, scheme operators, financial institutions, payment service providers, among others.

Carlos Pontes, EVP of new payment platforms, LAC, at Mastercard, said: “Modernising a country’s payments infrastructure is a major undertaking and we have a long, global track record of successfully deploying real-time payment systems. We are excited to continue our work with CCE together with ACI to develop a powerful and flexible real-time payments solution.”

CCE is a private institution that manages the clearing of financial institutions’ transfers, direct debits, credit instalments, cheques and bills of exchange.

In 2016, the company launched its real-time payments scheme Immediate Interbank Transfers (IIT), and now aims to modernise Peru’s digital payments infrastructure.

19 Feb 2021

Card-issuing giant Discover has signed an agreement to help expand instalment payment platform Sezzle’s buy-now-pay-later feature.

The agreement will enable Sezzle to work with merchants on the Discover Global Network to offer additional payment options.

Sezzle, which was founded in 2016, offers interest-free loans to customers for their purchases at online stores and select in-store locations. The loan approval is instant and individual credit scores are not affected unless the consumers opt for a credit building feature.

Jason Hanson, SVP of global business development and acceptance at Discover, said: “Our merchant partners are always a top priority and we know that providing them with additional payment options, such as a buy now, pay later structure, can be beneficial, especially in the current economic environment.

Covid-19 has accelerated electronic payments across the globe, and according to Sezzle, it has added over 300,000 new customers since the start of the pandemic.

Discover merchants will be able to offer interest-free BNPL payments without having to upgrade their existing payment systems.

17 Feb 2021

PayPal-owned mobile payment service Venmo has expanded the roll out of its Venmo Credit Card, allowing all eligible customers to apply via its app.

Launched last October to select customers, the Venmo Credit Card is issued by Synchrony and powered by the Visa network.

The card can be used anywhere Visa credit cards are accepted, enabling users to make both in-store and online purchases worldwide.

Venmo Credit Card features a personal Venmo QR code that can be scanned with mobile devices to activate it. Additionally, it can be scanned by friends in the Venmo app to make a payment or split a purchase.

Users will be to track their card activity in real-time through the Venmo app based on category, split and share payments.

The card will offer personalised rewards that automatically adjust to users’ spending, offering 3% cash back on the eligible top spend category, 2% on the second highest, and 1% on other expenditure.

13 Feb 2021

Mastercard and payments technology start-up CleverCards have signed a strategic partnership to expand the usage of digital cards across Europe.

The deal comes as CleverCards also joins Mastercard’s Fintech Express programme, propelling CleverCards to simplify the payments value chain across Europe to enable anyone, anywhere, anytime to be paid instantly by businesses.

Building on a successful partnership forged in 2019, the announcement underlines the organisations’ commitment to digitalising payments and delivering significant efficiencies and benefits to businesses.

Leveraging Mastercard’s core digital platform – Digital Enablement Service (MDES) – and integrating Mastercard processing and services capabilities into their platform, CleverCards’ innovative technology simplifies the payments value chain, enabling businesses to bypass several intermediary card issuing processes and instead easily send a digital prepaid Mastercard card directly to an email address or mobile phone number.

The recipients of the digital card can instantly spend their funds online or in-store using digital wallets, such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, to make secure contactless payments.

19 Feb 2021

American Express has rolled out digital receipts functionality to help its US cardholders better identify and remember purchases and minimise disputes for merchants.

The Digital Receipts feature provides users additional information about their purchases, including the name and logo of the merchant, order number, date of order, item(s) purchased, details of cost and merchant description.

These data will be available to the customers through their online accounts as well as the Amex mobile app.

According to recent Amex Trendex data, 70% of the surveyed consumers in the US reached out to their credit card company over what they initially thought as a potentially fraudulent purchase on their card account, but in the end, was a valid charge that they or a family member made.

American Express initially tried the new feature with Apple, rolling it out to services including App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and iCloud.