MasterCard Extends Global Reach of Mobile Money Services for the Unbanked

At Mobile World Congress, MasterCard (NYSE:MA) today announced that leading mobile payment technology providers eServGlobal and Oltio have joined the MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership Program(MMPP), an initiative launched in February 2012 and is designed to help more than 2.5 billion financially-underserved consumers around the world use their mobile phones to access mainstream financial services.

The MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership Program extends the services of today's mobile money offerings - mobile top-up, bill payments and P2P payments - to provide increased access and availability to electronic payments. In addition, the flexibility of the Program's platform allows mobile money providers to leverage existing investments in closed-loop platforms, or in case of new deployments, choose the platform of preference. Working with eServGlobal and Oltio and existing partners Comviva, Gemalto, Sybase 365, Telepin and Utiba, MasterCard is helping accelerate and expand the development of financial services offerings in emerging markets via the use of mobile technology.

eServGlobal is an established technology provider, offering a comprehensive suite of end-to-end mobile financial services to more than 90 mobile and financial services customers in over 55 countries worldwide. The MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership program compliments eServGlobal's open-loop mobile money solutions, which link mobile wallets to the MasterCard network via companion cards.

Oltio, a South African-based company focused on developing innovative products and services where payments and mobile technology converge, currently offers MasterCard open loop and remote payments solutions to merchants in South Africa in collaboration with IPS Electronic Payments (IPSEP). In formally joining the Program, Oltio will offer its customers a complete portfolio of interoperable MasterCard open loop solutions.

"Mobile has the unique potential to provide financial inclusion in emerging markets like Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. In fact, 16 percent of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa report having used a mobile phone in the past 12 months to pay bills or send or receive money," said Mung Ki Woo, Group Executive, Mobile, MasterCard Worldwide. "The addition of eServGlobal and Oltio into the Mobile Money Partnership Program increases our collective reach and influence in emerging markets where better access to electronic payments is vital. Each of these partners brings its own unique contribution to the program, and we look forward to working with them to address one of the defining challenges of our time."

The Mobile Money Partnership Program offers consumers the following MasterCard services:

Prepaid companion cards that can be used at merchants that accept MasterCard cards.
Virtual MasterCard accounts for consumers to make eCommerce payments with their mobile money account anywhere MasterCard is accepted online.
Person-to-person payments between subscribers of two different participating mobile money services.
Face-to-face or remote payments using mobile phones for goods and services at participating merchants that do not have traditional POS acceptance.

"We believe that mobile money is a service that can change people's lives in developing countries, yet it requires the right infrastructure, ecosystem and marketing," said Craig Halliday, CEO and Managing Director, eServGlobal. "We believe that by partnering with MasterCard, we can help to further the Mobile Money Partnership Program and in turn progress financial inclusion around the globe."

Page 2 >>