Mastercard launches Wallet Pay to expand digital wallet reach

MANILA, Philippines — Mastercard has launched a new suite of payment services to help digital wallets expand across borders and connect to more merchants, with GCash among the participating providers through its partnership with Alipay+.

The Mastercard Wallet Pay portfolio supports online, QR code and contactless payments, while helping wallet operators offer cards and facilitate money transfers without major changes to their existing infrastructure.

The initiative aims to improve interoperability, or the ability of different wallets and payment networks to work together, so consumers can use their payment apps across more merchants and markets.

Joyce Bo, Mastercard executive vice president for core payments in Asia-Pacific, said the next stage of digital wallet growth would depend on expanding their usefulness across payment systems and markets.

“The first chapter of digital wallets was adoption. The next chapter is interoperability at scale. As wallet ecosystems mature, the challenge is extending their reach across more merchants, use cases and borders,” Bo said.

“Mastercard Wallet Pay helps wallet providers expand what they can offer, from cross-border payments to card issuing, without having to build all of that connectivity themselves.”

For wallet providers, the portfolio offers access to Mastercard’s network of merchants and digital payment channels. It also supports the launch of credit, debit or prepaid card programs.

Mastercard said the services would allow more than 3.7 billion Mastercard credentials, the payment details associated with its cards, to connect to digital wallets.

Its money movement capabilities facilitate transfers between cards, wallets or accounts across more than 200 countries and territories and in 150 currencies.

The announcement did not specify a Philippine rollout date or identify which Wallet Pay features would be available to GCash users.

“GCash has always aimed to uplift the lives of Filipinos through accessible financial tools,” said Ren-Ren Reyes, president and CEO of G-Xchange, the mobile wallet operator of GCash.

“Through the Alipay+ and Mastercard partnership, we can extend secure global acceptance and new digital experiences to our users, reinforcing our leadership in payments.”

Alipay+ connects more than 50 e-wallets and banking apps as well as over 10 national payment schemes worldwide. Apart from GCash, its partner wallets involved in the initiative include AlipayHK, Clip, KakaoPay, TNG eWallet and TrueMoney.

Other participating payment providers include Axian, CRED, DaviPlata, Mercado Pago, MTN and TenPay Global.