Obopay to mobilize MasterCard customers

Last time we mentioned Obopay, they announced a new round of investment. This time, it’s MasterCard that is announcing a partnership with the mobile payment provider, to give its customers the “ability to provide an innovative mobile payments service to their MasterCard cardholders on all credit, debit and prepaid MasterCard-branded products.”

The announcement of this service comes at a time when consumers are increasingly seeking to use their mobile phones to streamline and simplify their day-to-day activities, including banking and payment transactions. TowerGroup estimates that in the United States, adoption of consumer mobile banking has quintupled in the past 12 months from 1.1 million active users in 2007 to 5.7 million active users today. As mobile consumers become increasingly comfortable with converging technologies on their mobile devices, the opportunity to develop mobile payments systems will continue to grow. The new Mobile MasterCard MoneySend Person-to-Person service will give participants the freedom and flexibility to directly, easily and securely send and receive funds through any registered cardholder’s mobile phone. The service will make mobile money transfer seamless for millions of consumers. Participants will use mobile numbers to send and receive funds, keeping their payment account numbers private.

According to MasterCard’s Chief Emerging Technology Officer (CETO?) Art Kranzley, the partnership with Obopay takes the development of the mobile person-to-person payments framework “to the next level.” He went on to say: “The power and breadth of the MasterCard network combined with the account relationships of MasterCard issuers and Obopay’s mobile payment technology enable us to offer valuable new services for consumers throughout the U.S., allowing consumers to easily transfer funds to their friends and families. We will launch this new service with our financial institution customers and Obopay in the near future.”