Ericsson and Mastercard have collaborated to increase the reach of digital money payment services, beginning with an implementation in the Middle East and Africa, as both companies aim to grow mobile wallets, cross-border payments, and financial inclusion.
The partnership will involve Ericsson merging its Fintech Platform, which facilitates mobile financial services, with Mastercard Move, the global network of money transfer solutions of Mastercard.
The tie-up will support telecom operators, banks, and fintech companies to enhance digital wallet functionalities and launch new payment services, especially in markets where a significant portion of the population is unbanked and underbanked.
The agreement will have Ericsson’s cloud-native fintech infrastructure and pre-integrated application programming interfaces (APIs) that directly integrate with Mastercard Move that facilitates the transfer of money in over 200 countries and territories and processes transactions in 150 currencies. Mastercard Move links more than 17 billion points around the world.
The firms reported that the integration aims at decreasing technical complexity, making compliance simpler, and achieving a quicker time to market for new services.
They seek to facilitate the scaling of digital payment offerings by service providers faster by reducing the cost of integration and operation.
The platform of fintech offered by Ericsson is already present in 22 countries and has more than 120 million active users. It handles more than 4 billion transactions every month in its services like digital wallets, remittances, lending, and loyalty programmes.
The first deployment will be in the Middle East and Africa, as the use of mobile money and remittance flows is growing at a fast pace, and there is a need to have interoperable payment systems.
Pratik Khowala, Global Head of Transfer Solutions at Mastercard, said, “Mastercard Move empowers payment service providers to shape the future of money movement – delivering fast, secure and transparent transfers for individuals and businesses worldwide. By integrating with Ericsson’s fintech platform, we’re opening new pathways for telecom operators, financial institutions, and fintechs to scale innovative payment services, reach underserved communities, and unlock fresh revenue streams.”
Pavan Bachwal, Head of Mobile Financial Services at Ericsson, added, “Joining forces with Mastercard marks a bold step toward the future of money movement. Combining Ericsson’s trusted, scalable platform with Mastercard Move enables our customers to launch secure and efficient payment solutions faster than we ever have before.”
