Banks Get Better Access to Mobile Wallet Market with MasterPass

Banks have been lagging when it comes to joining the mobile payments market, though some have contented themselves as being infrastructure providers for other such operations. These laggards have a new friend in MasterCard, however, as it’s recently released some new augmentations to its MasterPass program that should make it easier for banks to get involved in the action.

With the new MasterPass system, banks can offer customers more options for paying online or via a mobile app, including a new option that allows Android devices to serve as near-field communications (NFC) generators, letting users pay for items in store from said devices.

This comes at an excellent time, as chief competitor Visa recently brought out its own Visa Digital Commerce App to help banks and other financial institutions make a push into the field, and Apple Pay payments are headed to an upcoming update to the Mac operating system.

The rollout will be gradual, at least report, starting with a series of major banks in the United States, including banks like Capital One, Fifth Third Bank, First Tech Federal Credit Union and Key Bank, among others. Following successes here, the service will branch out to new locations, including Europe and the Middle East / Africa region, and this is expected to hit by the end of 2016. Going into 2017, meanwhile, the service will branch out to Latin America, the Caribbean and the Asia-Pacific region.

With so many competitors out there, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle unless a sufficient value proposition is offered. MasterPass has it a bit easier as it’s able to push on a narrower market niche, going pretty much exclusively after banks and credit unions. Still, even here, there will be competition and the banks will have to compete against the solutions already in the field.

Banks have a great advantage built-in thanks to decades of professional reputation and perceptions of security, but it’s still going to be an uphill slog to beat the sheer inertia of a market that’s often already selected its platform of choice. Still, the field is open, and the banks have a lot going for them with the help of MasterPass.