MasterCard Begins Mobile Payments Pilot in Brazil

The first deployment of MasterCard's new open mobile payments processing platform, MasterCard Mobile Payments Gateway, will take place in Brazil, the payments provider announced Wednesday.

Itau, Redecard and Vivo are the first companies to adopt the new payments platform, created through a joint venture between MasterCard and Smart Hub, Inc., which stores a MasterCard cardholder's credit or debit card number in a mobile phone's SIM card or chip to enable customers to make retail purchases or reload prepaid phone balances. About 1,000 merchants serving about 30,000 customers in Sao Jose dos Campos will pilot the program.

“With MasterCard Mobile, customers will enjoy all the convenience of paying merchants virtually for goods and services. This unique and multifunctional solution revolutionizes the way payments are made and will make consumers lives easier in many ways. For example, this new technology will allow consumers to order a pizza at home and pay for it easily and securely through their enabled mobile phone,” said Gilberto Caldart, president of MasterCard in Brazil and the Southern Cone.

MasterCard chose Sao Jose dos Campos because it represented an ideal environment for the project, with more than a half a million residents, proximity to major technology companies and a strong technological infrastructure. Customers who wish to participate in the program will be able to exchange their existing SIM cards for those enabled with the MasterCard Mobile option.

MasterCard's objective with its mobile payments platform is to provide a complete solution available to any issuer, acquirer and mobile operator to offer mobile phone-initiated payments using MasterCard's network.

"MasterCard's ability to connect financial institutions, merchants and consumers in the payments value chain through globally accepted payment products and services and a world-class integrated payment network puts us in a unique position to advance mobile payments", said Caldart. "This pioneering product launch in Brazil demonstrates MasterCard's leadership in bringing innovative solutions to the country and to the lives of local cardholders while adding greater value to the businesses of all our partners."