MasterCard unveils digital wallet and open API

MasterCard has unveiled a digital wallet that will allow users to make purchases in-store, online and through their mobile phones.

The card giant's PayPass Wallet Services will let customers make contactless payments through cards and mobile phones in stores with NFC terminals. In addition, online shoppers will be able to store their details in the wallet and then make purchases with a single click.

The wallet is open, which means that banks, merchants and other partners will be able to white label their own offerings while consumers will be able to pay with American Express, Discover, Visa cards as well as MasterCard offerings.

At the same time, an API lets partners connect their own digital wallets into the PayPass Acceptance Network, linking to MasterCard's check-out, fraud detection and authentication services and enabling their customers to make purchases wherever PayPass is accepted - online and in store.

The wallet will be available to partners in the third quarter 2012, initially in the US, Canada, UK and Australia, with more countries to follow.

Watch Dave Butler, Head of MasterCard's Open API, comment on the announcements from the CTIA Wireless 2012 Conference



At the same time as the wallet launch, MasterCard also published new research in the form of a Mobile Payments Readiness Index (MPRI) that analyses and ranks 34 markets worldwide in terms of how ready (or not) they are to implement mobile payments.

Initial results suggest it's early days for mobile payments, with the top five markets identified as Singapore, Canada, the United States, Kenya, and South Korea.

Ted Iacobuzio, MasterCard's Vice President of Global Insights, talks about the Mobile Payment Readiness Index