Telefónica and MasterCard are teaming-up to “lead the development of mobile financial solutions in 12 countries in Latin America where Telefónica is present with the Movistar brand.” The 50/50 joint venture will “leverage banking relationships of both companies, Telefónica’s telecommunications assets and MasterCard’s payments expertise.” As a result, customers should be able to use devices for person-to-person money transfers, bill payments, mobile airtime reload and retail purchases.
Unfortunately, a timescale for product launches was not provided. All we have are the official PR words in which Telefónica says the initiative is “a step toward achieving financial inclusion for the underserved in Latin America – positively impacting its economic development.”
A week ago MasterCard appointed Mung-Ki Woo as Group Executive, Mobile to lead “innovation, commercialization and development of go-to-market strategies to support mobile payments around the world.”. Mr. Woo was previously VP of electronic payments and transactions at Orange, leading the development of the “Orange Money” service, which is available in few African countries…
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]