Axis Bank, boAt & Mastercard Launch Smartwatch That Lets You Pay with a Tap—No Wallet Needed

Axis Bank, one of the largest private sector Banks in India, today announced that it has collaborated with boAt, India’s No.1 wearable brand, and Mastercard, a global technology leader in payments, to seamlessly integrate tap & pay NFC enabled payments for its newly launched ‘Wave Fortune’, a cutting-edge smartwatch. Priced competitively at ₹3,299 (₹2,599 during special offers), Wave Fortune is designed to empower users with convenience, security, and a next-level smartwatch experience

Axis Bank cardholders can now securely tokenize and store their debit and credit cards on the WAVE Fortune Smartwatch via Crest Pay, boAt’s official payments app and make contactless payments effortlessly. This feature, powered by Mastercard’s tokenization technology and supported by the robust token requestor infrastructure of TAPPY Technologies, allows single-step payment of up to ₹5,000 on a POS device without entering card PIN, ensuring both speed and security.

Powered by Mastercard, the payment system allows users to securely tokenize and store their cards within the smartwatch strap for quick and seamless transactions. Axis Bank credit and debit cardholders on Mastercard and VISA networks will continue to enjoy the rewards and benefits of their linked card while making payments with the Wave Fortune smartwatch.

Commenting on the partnership, Arnika Dixit, President & Head - Cards, Payments and Wealth Management, Axis Bank, said, “At Axis Bank, we have been continuously working on innovation-led partnership models to offer innovative and secure digital banking solutions to customers. In this effort, we are delighted to have partnered with boAt to truly make payments on-the-go, seamlessly integrating contactless payments into people’s day-to-day lives. Bringing in our expertise in tokenized contactless payments, ‘Wave Fortune’, a cutting-edge smartwatch will allow the users with the highest standards of safety and security, combined with a quick and convenient payment experience.”

Sameer Mehta, Co-founder and CEO, boAt, said, "At boAt, we are always striving to push the boundaries of technology to enhance everyday convenience. Our partnership with Axis Bank brings secure, effortless payments to the wrist, making contactless transactions more accessible than ever."

Gautam Aggarwal, Division President, South Asia at Mastercard said, “In the near future, payments will be gesture-based — integrated into our daily routines, with transactions occurring in a frictionless manner. Wearable devices, irrespective of the form factor, will play a key role in this evolution, offering quick and secure payment experiences. As a company committed to shaping this future of commerce, Mastercard is delighted to power the tokenization enabled smartwatch, empowering users to pay with their credit or debit cards.”

Wave Fortune Smartwatch

In addition to its contactless payment functionality, the Wave Fortune smartwatch is designed to keep users connected, stylish, and productive - whether at the gym, on the move, or in business settings. It brings secure, on-the-go payments to the wrist and reflects boAt’s vision of merging convenience with innovation to create lifestyle-driven wearables.

A Display That Shines, Features That Deliver

• Vivid 1.96” HD display with 240x282 resolution and 550 nits brightness for exceptional clarity - even under direct sunlight
• Wake gesture for quick access to time and notifications
• DIY Watch Face Studio to personalize your home screen with images, themes, or artworks

Fitness and Utility 

• Built-InEarn boAt Coins by achieving fitness milestones - redeemable for boAt offers
• Ultra-clear Bluetooth Calling, interactive dial pad, contact saving, and direct access to Crest Pay

The Wave Fortune smartwatch is now available in Active Black on the [boAt website].

Mastercard Unveils Near Real-Time Cross-Border Payments for Banks

Mastercard has introduced a groundbreaking innovation called Mastercard Move Commercial Payments. This new solution aims to revolutionize cross-border payments for banks by enabling near real-time, predictable, and transparent commercial cross-border payments.

The solution facilitates payments that are almost instantaneous, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Banks and their customers gain end-to-end visibility, making cross-border transactions more predictable and transparent.

The innovation simplifies operations for banks, optimizing liquidity and reducing counterparty risk. It is fully compatible with existing correspondent banking arrangements between respondents and correspondents. Large clearing banks can extend the service to their institutional customers with minimal changes to their current processes.

Value added services tailored for a bank’s unique needs, including innovative risk control services and fraud analytics.

The solution is designed to support the growing demand for cross-border payments as businesses expand their international operations.

This innovation was revealed at the annual Sibos conference in Beijing and is expected to bring the efficiency of domestic payments to the cross-border payment space.

 

In a pilot in the UK with Lloyds Banking Group and UBS, using Fnality as the settlement venue, Mastercard Move Commercial Payments is being used to deliver near real-time, around-the-clock cross-border transfers.

Mastercard Move Commercial Payments is part of the Mastercard Move portfolio of money transfer capabilities that enables people and businesses to move funds quickly and securely, both domestically and internationally.

To recall, Citi and Mastercard have joint solutions for Mastercard debit cards aim for near real-time transfers. Besides Citi, Alipay too have partnered with Mastercard to expand its services to allow consumers to receive money in their digital wallets, facilitating cross-border transactions.

Visa Direct enables near real-time cross-border money movement, allowing funds to be available within 30 minutes. PayPal too offers near real-time transfers, especially when linked to debit cards. Western Union generally provides near real-time transfers, depending on the recipient's location and delivery method.

However, Mastercard Move Commercial Payments stands out from other cross-border payment solutions in several ways. While other solutions offer near real-time transactions, Mastercard Move Commercial Payments emphasizes 24/7 availability and 365 days a year.

Mastercard Move provides end-to-end visibility and predictable transaction times, which is crucial for businesses managing international operations. The solution optimizes liquidity and reduces counterparty risk, simplifying operations for banks. It includes a multilateral arrangement to reduce counterparty risk and ensure certainty in end-to-end transaction clearing.

Additionally, Mastercard Move has Flexible Settlement Options. Banks can optimize liquidity without affecting foreign exchange and deposit-related revenues.

These features make Mastercard Move Commercial Payments a comprehensive solution designed to address the pain points of cross-border payments more effectively than some of its competitors.

Mastercard Debuts New Open Banking-powered Tools

Mastercard has recently introduced a suite of open banking-powered tools designed to give consumers greater control over their financial data.

Mastercard has introduced Connect Plus, a data-consent command center that allows consumers to manage where, how, and with whom their financial data is shared.

With Connect Plus, customers will get Enhanced Identity and Device Intelligence as it has features that help ensure secure and seamless sharing of financial data with third parties.

Connect Plus will deliver a streamlined and secure platform for individuals to manage their data shared through Mastercard’s Open Banking network. Offering a 360-degree view of the third parties a consumer has granted data access to and the tools to manage the access, Connect Plus empowers individuals to take charge of their financial lives, safely and with ease.

And to ensure the consumer is kept in the loop at all times, Connect Plus will notify users when a third-party’s permission to access account data is expiring or needs additional attention.

The Mastercard Account Owner Verification solution, along with a library of APIs for open banking and beyond are available now at Mastercard Developers.

Open banking can drive innovation by enabling the development of new financial products and services that leverage consumer-permissioned data.

Consumers can use a secure, easy-to-use digital web application to search for and link their bank accounts, view which third parties have access to their data, and manage permissions.

Mastercard is piloting Connect Plus this year and expects to expand to full availability in the U.S. in 2025.

Mastercard has been actively working on expanding its open banking-powered tools globally. While the initial launch is focused on the U.S., the company has expressed its commitment to bringing these solutions to other markets as well. The timeline for the global rollout will depend on various factors, including regulatory approvals and partnerships with local financial institutions.

Open banking enables consumers to access valuable financial experiences, such as easier ways to pay recurring bills, build credit, and secure loans.

This initiative aims to make financial data sharing more secure and convenient for consumers, empowering them to take control of their personal information.

Mastercard's new open banking-powered tools are likely to have several significant impacts on the credit card industry.

By providing consumers with greater control over their financial data, these tools can help reduce the risk of data breaches and fraud. This increased security can build consumer trust in digital financial services.

Open banking allows for seamless integration of financial services, making it easier for consumers to manage their finances, pay bills, and access credit.

With easier access to financial data, fintech companies and other non-bank entities can offer more competitive products and services, potentially challenging traditional credit card issuers.

Mastercard Acquires Recorded Future, World’s Largest Threat Intelligence Co., for $2.65 Bn

Mastercard has made a significant move by acquiring Recorded Future for $2.65 billion. Recorded Future is the world’s largest threat intelligence company, with more than 1,900 clients across 75 countries, including the governments of 45 countries and over 50% of the Fortune 100.

This acquisition is aimed at bolstering Mastercard's cybersecurity capabilities, particularly in threat intelligence. Recorded Future, known for its AI-powered analytics, provides real-time visibility into potential cyber threats, which will enhance Mastercard's identity, fraud prevention, and real-time decisioning services.

This acquisition underscores the growing importance of cybersecurity in the digital economy, especially as cybercrime is projected to cost $9.2 trillion globally in 2024.

By integrating Recorded Future's advanced technologies, Mastercard aims to innovate faster and anticipate emerging threats, providing greater security and peace of mind for its network of merchants and financial institutions.

With Recorded Future’s advanced threat intelligence, Mastercard can offer more robust cybersecurity solutions. This could pressure competitors like Visa and American Express to enhance their own cybersecurity measures to stay competitive. The integration of AI-powered analytics from Recorded Future will likely lead to more innovative fraud prevention and real-time decisioning services. Competitors may need to invest in similar technologies or partnerships to keep up.

The need for a holistic and global cyber defense has never been greater. As new technologies are introduced and adopted, there is a rising risk of cyber threats. In 2024 alone, cybercrime is projected to cost $9.2 trillion globally.

The acquisition highlights the growing importance of cybersecurity in the financial sector. Competitors might increase their investments in cybersecurity to ensure they are not left behind.

Overall, this move by Mastercard could set a new standard in the industry, prompting competitors to accelerate their own cybersecurity initiatives to maintain their market positions.

Of late, Mastercard is extensively integrating innovative solutions in its business and services via both in-house and acquired solutions.

In June, Mastercard launched its Mastercard Crypto Credential, which enables peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions using aliases instead of long and complex blockchain addresses.

Last year in March, Mastercard acquired Baffin Bay Networks, a company specializing in distributed threat protection against DDoS attacks and web applications. This acquisition is part of Mastercard’s efforts to strengthen its cybersecurity infrastructure.
To recall, in 2021, Mastercard acquired the European open banking platform Tink for approximately $2.15 billion. This acquisition aimed to enhance Mastercard’s open banking capabilities and provide better financial services to consumers and businesses.

These acquisitions reflect Mastercard’s focus on enhancing its cybersecurity and threat intelligence capabilities, ensuring greater security for its network of merchants and financial institutions.

Mastercard Selects India for Debuting Its New Payment Service That Uses Biometrics

Mastercard has chosen India for the global launch of its Payment Passkey Service. This innovative service aims to enhance online shopping security by using biometric authentication methods such as fingerprints and facial recognition, replacing traditional passwords and one-time passwords (OTPs).

The service was unveiled at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai and is being piloted with major Indian payment players like Juspay, Razorpay, and PayU, as well as online merchants such as bigbasket and banks like Axis Bank. This move is expected to significantly reduce online fraud, which has surged by nearly 300% in India over the past two years.

It is to be noted that despite the rising popularity of one-time passwords (OTPs) due to their ease of use, they are increasingly vulnerable to online scams such as phishing, SIM swapping and message interception. In India, the incidence of fraud cases has surged by nearly 300% in the last two years, as reported by the Reserve Bank of India’s Annual Report for 2023-2024.

By leveraging tokenization and biometric authentication, Mastercard's Payment Passkey Service aims to make online transactions faster and more secure, providing a seamless checkout experience for millions of shoppers.

The Mastercard Payment Passkey Service uses tokenization to secure a consumer’s payment details and biometric data, ensuring that no data is shared with third parties and is useless to fraudsters and scammers. The service is a game changer for online checkout:

1. Shoppers choose their Mastercard when checking out as a guest or select a card already stored securely on file with a merchant.

2. To confirm the payment, users can use biometric authentication mechanism features on their device – whether it’s a fingerprint, face scan or PIN.

3. Upon successful authentication, the payment is instantly completed.

Other countries are also adopting biometric authentication technologies for online transactions and digital identity systems.

Singapore’s SingPass system is one of the most advanced digital ID systems globally, allowing citizens to access over 700 government and private sector services using biometric authentication.

Similarily, Estonia’s eID system is renowned for its security and efficiency, offering over 600 e-services to citizens and 2400 to businesses. It uses biometric data to ensure secure access.

"We are excited to be partnering with Mastercard to pilot its Payment Passkey Service as an alternate transaction authentication method and provide our customers a non-OTP-based solution for transaction management,” said Sanjeev Moghe, president and head, Cards & Payments, at Axis Bank. “This will allow us to provide more engaging usage and in-app experience for customers who desire enhanced security and frictionless payments.”

“Enabling this industry-first proof of concept underscores Juspay’s commitment to empower merchants with innovation and technology that improves the e-commerce experience,” said Sheetal Lalwani, chief operating officer and co-founder of Juspay. “We believe this solution will help our merchant customers improve payment success rates and overall sales. With this pilot, merchants can significantly improve the payment experience for end consumers, allowing them to make payments easily, without multiple redirects, in a safe and secure way using device biometrics. We are working with Mastercard in shaping a future where digital payments are seamless and accessible to all, enabling merchants to better serve their customers.”

"As the country’s payment ecosystem matures, the demand for advanced and secure payment solutions is greater than ever,” said Manas Mishra, PayU’s chief product officer. “At PayU, we are relentlessly focused on pushing the boundaries of payment security and user experience as a resiliently progressive payments platform. Integrating the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service is a pivotal step in that direction. This partnership reflects our commitment to embracing cutting-edge payment technologies and reinforces our role in setting new benchmarks for security and efficiency in digital transactions."

"We are thrilled to join forces with Mastercard to introduce its Payment Passkey Service in India, a groundbreaking initiative that enhances transaction security and user experience in remote commerce, leveraging the power of biometric authentication,” said Arif Khan, chief innovation officer of Razorpay. “At Razorpay, our focus is on the 3 's's — safety, simplification and success rate — to ensure seamless and secure online payments. We strive to stay ahead of the curve by integrating advanced technologies that not only safeguard our merchants and their customers but also streamline the payment process."

Mastercard's Crypto Payment Offering 'Crypto Credential' is Now Live with 1st P2P Pilot Transaction

Mastercard has recently launched its Mastercard Crypto Credential, which enables peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions using aliases instead of long and complex blockchain addresses. This innovative system aims to simplify cryptocurrency transactions for exchange users, offering a more user-friendly approach.

For the first time, crypto exchange users will be able to send and receive crypto using their Mastercard Crypto Credential aliases, instead of the typically long and complex blockchain addresses.

Launched last year, in April, Mastercard Crypto Credential is a set of common standards and infrastructure that will help verify interactions among consumers and businesses using blockchain networks. Mastercard Crypto Credential aims to provide a foundation for financial institutions, governments, brands, and crypto players, ensuring that those interested in interacting across web3 environments are meeting defined standards for the types of activities they’d like to pursue.

Key details about the Mastercard Crypto Credential:

What It Does

The Mastercard Crypto Credential verifies interactions among consumers and businesses using blockchain networks. It ensures that users meet a set of verification standards and confirms that the recipient's wallet supports the transferred asset.

By exchanging metadata, it eliminates the complexity of knowing which assets or chains are supported by the recipient, bringing more trust and certainty to transactions.

Live Transaction Capabilities

The live transaction capabilities are initially enabled on the Bit2Me, Lirium, and Mercado Bitcoin exchanges, allowing them to enable blockchain transactions simply and securely between Latin American and European corridors. These capabilities allow for simple and secure blockchain transactions between Latin American and European corridors.

Users in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Uruguay can now send cross-border and domestic transfers across multiple currencies and blockchains.

Travel Rule Support

The system also supports the exchange of Travel Rule information for cross-border transactions. The Travel Rule is a regulatory requirement aimed at ensuring transparency and preventing potentially illegal activities.

The P2P transaction is just the beginning. Mastercard Crypto Credential aims to support various use cases, including NFTs, ticketing, and other payment solutions, depending on market and compliance requirements.

Foxbit is the latest crypto wallet provider to join the Mastercard Crypto Credential pilot ecosystem, extending the reach to more consumers. Lulubit users will also receive access through its integration with Lirium.

This milestone represents the first real-world application of the Mastercard Crypto Credential vision, which was unveiled at Consensus in 2023. It has the potential to further expand and support the domestic and cross-border remittance market.

The Mastercard Crypto Credential offers several advantages compared to other crypto payment solutions. Instead of using long and complex blockchain addresses, the Mastercard Crypto Credential allows users to send and receive digital assets using aliases. These aliases are more intuitive and user-friendly, making crypto transactions easier for average users.

When a user initiates a transfer, the program verifies that their alias is valid and that the recipient's network address supports the associated token and blockchain of the transaction. If the recipient's address doesn't support the sender's asset or network, the transaction simply does not proceed, preventing potential loss of funds due to user mistakes.

Additionally, aliases protect against address poisoning scams, where attackers trick wallet users into sending coins to a similar-looking address.

While the P2P transaction is the first use case, the Mastercard Crypto Credential aims to support various scenarios, including NFTs, ticketing, and other payment solutions, depending on market and compliance requirements.

In the next step, said Mastercard, a select group of crypto wallet users will leverage Mastercard Crypto Credential on a first-come, first-serve basis. Thereafter, within the coming months wider availability will roll out to more than 7 million users across the participating exchanges. 

In a nutshell, the Mastercard Crypto Credential simplifies crypto transactions, enhances security, and contributes to the broader adoption of cryptocurrencies in the financial ecosystem.

Mastercard Using Generative AI to Detect Compromised Cards at 2X Speed

Mastercard has announced that in order to enhance card fraud detection it is using generative AI technology. This advancement, Mastercard claims, has led to a doubling of the speed at which potentially compromised cards are detected, thereby offering better protection to cardholders and securing the ecosystem.

Fraudsters steal millions of payment card numbers through spyware, malware, and other clandestine practices such as card skimming. In a bid to sell this data to other criminals, they place part of the 16-digit numbers on illegal websites.

The generative AI technology works by scanning transaction data across billions of cards and millions of merchants. It identifies new and complex fraud patterns, which allows Mastercard to predict the full card details of compromised cards on its network. As a result, banks can block these cards much faster than before, greatly reducing the risk of fraudulent transactions.

Moreover, this technology has improved the detection rate of compromised cards, reduced false positives during the detection of fraudulent transactions by up to 200%, and increased the speed of identifying merchants at risk from fraud by 300%. These enhancements enable Mastercard to alert banks more quickly and with greater accuracy when a card is likely to have been compromised, allowing for immediate action to be taken.

This is a clear example of how generative AI is being used to bolster cybersecurity measures in the financial industry, ensuring that transactions remain safe and trustworthy.

Other major credit card companies are also adopting Al technologies to combat fraud. Visa has introduced new payment technology that leverages Al to enhance the security of card information. American Express employs machine learning-powered fraud detection systems to monitor and detect fraudulent activities whenever an Amex card is used.

Mastercard and Salesforce Announce New Integration to Speed Up Resolution of Transaction Disputes

Mastercard and Salesforce have recently partnered to enhance trust across the ecosystem by addressing transaction disputes more efficiently. As consumers seek easier and safer shopping experiences, this integration aims to speed up the resolution of transaction disputes and reduce associated costs.

 

Image ~ Salesforce.com

Disputes and chargebacks, where consumers notice unrecognized transactions and request chargebacks from their banks, pose a significant challenge to the payments industry. Projections suggest that by 2026 there could be 337 million chargebacks annually, an increase of 42% from 2023 levels.

The integration will streamline the way issuers, like banks and other financial institutions, view and manage transaction data, such as disputes and decisions. It will enable a quicker, more efficient and transparent response to dispute inquiries.

The partnership will integrate Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud (FSC) with Mastercard's dispute resolution services, providing a powerful one-stop-shop for intake, managing disputes, reporting and preventing chargebacks.

Mastercard’s services include Ethoca Alerts, which provides near real-time notifications when a financial institution raises a chargeback and Ethoca Consumer Clarity, enabling the provision of rich merchant and purchase insights to issuer back-office teams.

Powered by the Einstein Platform, FSC unifies customer relationship management (CRM), AI, merchant and consumer data, development, and security capabilities into a comprehensive platform. Every bank agent and team member working on a dispute gains better visibility from start to finish, leading to an improved customer experience.

5 Startups to Join Mastercard’s Start Path Blockchain and Digital Assets Program

Mastercard's Start Path Blockchain and Digital Assets program is welcoming five startups to explore innovative blockchain and digital asset solutions. This initiative aims to drive user experiences and expand use cases that demonstrate the power of blockchain technology.

The program focuses on how different currency formats, from regulated money to bank deposits, stablecoins, and CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), can serve specific purposes. Mastercard is leveraging its experience in payment innovations to bridge these ecosystems with startups, powering new solutions, and creating efficiencies in digital commerce experiences.

The startups joining this program will have the opportunity for collaboration, bespoke training, and access to Mastercard’s customers and channels through a virtual four-month program. Since its inception in 2014, the Start Path program has supported over 400 startups from 54 countries.

The startups participating in the current cohort are:

1. Kulipa (France): Focused on enabling next-generation crypto payment card issuing for digital wallets.
2. Parfin (U.K.): Developing enterprise-grade software products to help financial institutions adopt blockchain rails.
3. peaq (Singapore): Providing digital infrastructure for real-world applications using decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN).
4. Triangle (USA): Prioritizes sustainability through a data platform that triangulates climate data with finance.
5. Venly (Belgium): Makes blockchain integration straightforward for developers and businesses to support industry growth and digital transformation

This is a significant step towards integrating blockchain technology into mainstream financial services, enhancing commerce with trust and transparency. It's exciting to see how these startups will contribute to the evolving landscape of digital transactions and asset management.

Mastercard's Start Path is an award-winning startup engagement program that provides global support for startups, particularly in the fintech sector. The program helps these startups access strategic partnerships, co- innovation opportunities, and engagement with Mastercard's extensive global network.

The program is designed to help startups scale up and reach a global customer base by offering tailored expertise and the opportunity to co-create and innovate with Mastercard. Since its launch in 2014, Start Path has supported a diverse range of fintechs from around the world, helping them to grow and succeed.

For startups looking to join the program, Mastercard seeks companies that are aiming for global scale, accelerated expansion, and those that could benefit from a partnership with a trusted and established industry leader like Mastercard.

Mastercard, Visa Reach $30 Bn Settlement In One of The Largest in US History

Visa and Mastercard have reached a significant settlement with US retailers, agreeing to a deal that will cap credit-card swipe fees. This settlement is estimated to save merchants at least $30 Billion over five years.

The agreement includes a reduction in interchange fees until 2030 and requires the companies to negotiate fees with merchant-buying groups.

This settlement is considered one of the largest antitrust settlements in U.S. history and is expected to resolve claims from litigation that began in 2005.

Under the settlement announced on Tuesday, Visa and Mastercard will reduce interchange rates by four basis points (0.04 percentage points) in the United States for three years, and cap rates for five years.

Retailers had accused Visa and Mastercard of overcharging on interchange fees and imposing anti-steering rules that prevented them from directing customers to less expensive payment methods. The settlement also aims to provide more discretion to merchants to offer discounts or impose surcharges on cards with higher interchange fees.

Interchange fees are transaction fees that the merchant's bank pays to the cardholder's bank to cover handling costs, fraud and bad debt costs, and the risk involved in approving the payment. Essentially, they are part of the overall fee that merchant services providers charge for processing credit and debit card transactions.

Interchange fees are calculated as a percentage of the total transaction amount, plus a fixed fee. These rates are set by credit card networks like Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, and typically update every April and October.

The collected interchange fees are then passed back to the bank that issued the customer's credit card.

For example, if Visa's interchange rate for a retail sale is 1.5% plus 10 cents, and the merchant services provider adds a service fee of 0.40% plus 8 cents, the total transaction fee would be 1.9% plus 18 cents.

The settlement between Visa and Mastercard and US retailers could have several potential impacts on consumers:

1. Credit Card Rewards: There's a possibility that the rewards and benefits offered by premium credit cards might be reduced. Since the settlement allows merchants to negotiate lower transaction rates, the revenue used to fund these rewards could decrease.

2. Cost of Using Premium Cards: Merchants may pass on the cost of transactions to consumers, especially for premium credit cards that typically have higher swipe fees. This could mean that consumers might have to pay more when using such cards.

3. Surcharging: The settlement gives merchants more freedom to impose surcharges on cards with higher interchange fees. So, consumers might face additional charges for using certain credit cards at some retailers.

4. Price of Goods and Services: If merchants decide to pass on the savings from lower swipe fees to consumers, there could be a reduction in the prices of goods and services. However, it's uncertain if and how much of the savings will be passed on to consumers.

It's important to note that the actual impact will depend on how merchants choose to respond to the changes in swipe fees and whether they decide to pass on the costs or savings to consumers. The effects might not be immediate and could evolve over time as the market adjusts to the new settlement terms.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Launches ‘Digital Saksham’ Initiative with Mastercard and National Institute for MSME

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) launches 'Digital Saksham' initiative with Mastercard and National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ni-msme) to enable 3 lakhs+ MSMEs across India with digital know how and acceptance.

 

National, December 10, 2020: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today announced a strategic MoU with Mastercard and National Institute for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (ni-msme) an organisation of Ministry of MSME, Government of India to launch the Digital Saksham Initiative - an expansive program designed to strengthen the competitiveness of MSMEs through digital know-how and acceptance.

This collaboration aims to educate and train micro and small business owners and entrepreneurs enabling them to integrate into the digital economy and access credit, expand their market access, diversify their customer base, digitize their financial operations and solidify their supply chain. The ultimate objective is to unlock the full potential of MSMEs in India, measured by greater profitability and financial resilience.

"We need to make 50% of the growth of the Indian economy come from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, raise its contribution to exports to 60% and create 5 crore new jobs. To realize this potential– micro and small businesses need to become increasingly competitive in a changing marketplace. I am pleased to note that the project Digital Saksham by CII, Mastercard and ni-msme entails a scale of reaching out to more than 3 lakh MSMEs in 25 cities including rural and peri-urban clusters. This will help drive systemic transformation and further accelerate achievements towards meeting our goals and ensure financial inclusion".  stated Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon'ble Minister for MSMEs and Road Transport and Highways of India, while speaking at the 17th Global SME Business Summit 2020, virtually, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in partnership with the Ministry of MSME, GOI.

"I congratulate the Digitalsaksham project with mastercard and Ni-msme, I'll suggest the CII team to engage with MSMEs further on helping MSMEs become digital" – Mr A K Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of MSME.

Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, stated that the Digital Saksham initiative will focus on activating CII's vast membership base which includes 67% of MSMEs to upskill specially the micro and small businesses. Through a combination of CII's broad footprint with 67 offices across the country and collaboration with ni-msme, CII will target key supply chains and use a cluster approach to deliver relevant skills know-how to the last mile entrepreneur. CII will also engage value chain anchors in the delivery of training through their supply chains. "We have an ambitious outreach target on creating awarness on digital financial literacy for 3 lakhs micro and small business who will attain the knowledge and access to personal finance strategies and digital financial instruments through this intervention which will spread across 25 cities in 7 states". He added

Commenting on the partnership, Mr Ari Sarker, Co-President, Asia Pacific, Mastercard said "Small businesses play an enormous role in rebuilding local communities and supporting economic recovery. It is critical that we look for solutions that don't just focus on how we can support SMEs, but also those that are designed to enable SMEs to support themselves. Towards this goal, Mastercard is delighted to partner with the Government of India via the National Institute for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (ni-msme) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to launch the Digital Saksham initiative. The program is an extension of Mastercard's global and India commitment to empower, enable, and enhance small entrepreneurs making them more competitive."

The implementation of the project is proposed from January 2021 and execution of trainings among the MSMEs from June 2021, confirmed Ms Amita Sarkar, DDG, CII and Ms Alison L. Eskesen, Vice President, Mastercard's Center For Inclusive Growth.


About Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

About CII

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering Industry, Government, and civil society through working closely with Government on policy issues, interfacing with thought leaders, and enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and business opportunities for industry. For 125 years, CII has been working on shaping India's development journey and, this year, more than ever before, it will continue to proactively transform Indian industry's engagement in national development. With 68 offices, including 10 Centres of Excellence in India, and 8 overseas offices, the premier business association has more than 9100 members, from the private as well as public sectors, and an indirect membership from around 288 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.

No Code AI Platform Signzy Raises $5.4 Mn led by Arkam Ventures, Mastercard

Signzy will invest the funds in AI research, product enhancement and sales team expansion to address the surge in demand from global and India clients

Signzy Founders Pic (L-R) - Arpit Ratan, Ankit Ratan, Ankur Pandey

Signzy, a 'no code AI platform has raised $5.4M from Arkam Ventures and Mastercard. Signzy's existing investors, Kalaari Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners also participated in the current round.

Signzy, which offers a 'no code AI platform' that helps financial services automate risk and compliance processes, said that it is currently dealing with a massive surge in global demand for its solutions on account of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The startup plans to invest heavily to strengthen its AI research and global sales to tap into the increased demand.

Signzy is a leading AI innovator with three new patents last year and more expected over the next 12 months.

Ankit Ratan, co-founder of Signzy said, "The ongoing pandemic has not only upended the pace of digitalization in the financial services space but has also led to increased demand for no-contact solutions. The decisions that used to need years to finalize are now being closed in just a quarter. We have worked hard to keep up with the growing demand. This fundraise is a timely boost in our efforts to scale up our AI capabilities and to tap an ever-widening global market opportunity. We'll also be using these funds to deepen our customer engagement."

At a time when banks and financial institutions are in need of innovative digital solutions, Signzy is helping them with AI-led digital transformation.

Bala Srinivasa, Managing Director of Arkam Ventures said, "It's been amazing to see Signzy's evolution into a word class risk and compliance management provider in a short period of time. Some of the largest and most demanding banks and financial services in India and globally have adopted the Signzy solution due to its cutting edge technology and measurable value proposition. We are delighted to support this exceptional team as they broaden their product portfolio and accelerate global expansion."

Signzy provides digital KYC solutions to over 100 Indian banks, insurance firms, and asset management companies like Aditya Birla Sunlife AMC, BoB Financial and more. The clients also include four of the largest banks in India, with State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank among them.

Globally, Signzy has a strong partnership with Mastercard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve customers in the multiple geographies.

Signzy is a 'no code AI platform' for financial services. No matter how complex a workflow or operational complexity is, Signzy is able to completely automate the back-operations decision-making process into a real-time API. This is possible due to a combination of Nebula — a no-code AI model builder and a Fintech API Marketplace of over 240+ APIs.

Today, the startup works with over 100+ banking and financial services globally including the 4 largest banks in India and a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US. Globally, Signzy has a strong partnership with Mastercard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve its customers in the these geographies. The startup's product team of 120+ people is building a global AI product in Bangalore.

For Asia's 1st Pilot of Biometric Card, Mastercard Team Up with IDEMIA and Singapore's Fintech Firm MatchMove

Mastercard has teamed up with IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, and MatchMove, a Singapore-based fintech, on their first pilot in Asia of a biometric card that uses a fingerprint to authorize transactions at in-store payment terminals.

The card, with the product name F.CODE Easy, takes the seamless and intuitive experience of biometric authentication from a smartphone to a smart card. It makes transactions more convenient, safe and secure by eliminating the need for a cardholder to provide a PIN number or signature, thereby reducing touch points in public places.

Developed by IDEMIA in accordance with Mastercard’s technical and design specifications, F.CODE Easy ensures privacy and security by storing all biometric credentials on the card chip rather than a central database. The battery-free card, which harvests energy from payment terminals to power its fingerprint sensor, is designed to be user-friendly and is certified to ISO standards by Mastercard for security and compliance.

MatchMove, a Banking as a Service provider in Singapore, will issue the biometric cards for the pilot in the fourth quarter of this year. The pilot will feature employees of Mastercard, IDEMIA and MatchMove using the cards for transactions and live demonstrations for customers.

“As people make a permanent move to contactless transactions, the biometric card promises more choice and greater security for consumers,” said Matthew Driver, Executive Vice President, Services, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “With Mastercard’s focus on digital commerce, this solution is a testament to the innovative partnerships Mastercard cultivates and its mission to provide fast, frictionless payment experiences that are protected at every point."

The shift to touch-free transactions is underway globally as almost six in 10 consumers say the move to digital payments is likely to last and nearly half plan to use cash less often even after the COVID-19 pandemic passes, according to a Mastercard study in multiple markets around the world. In Asia Pacific, a large majority – 71% in Australia, 77% in India, 73% in China and 62% in Japan – believe the shift to contactless payments is here to stay.

To support the onboarding process for F.CODE Easy, IDEMIA will provide a full set of services to MatchMove that allow users to enroll in their own homes for maximum convenience.

“We are proud to celebrate this milestone on our journey to shaping the future of payments into one powered by biometrics,” said Vincent Mouret, Senior Vice President of Financial Institutions Asia Pacific at IDEMIA. “We are delighted to partner with Mastercard and MatchMove to launch F.CODE Easy in Asia and we look forward to continuing to work together to provide end-to-end security for fintechs."

MatchMove, which aims to democratize essential financial services using advanced cloud and mobile technologies, is one of 21 applicants for Singapore’s digital banking licenses.

“We are excited to partner with IDEMIA and Mastercard to pioneer cutting-edge solutions that empower our customers to make safe and secure payments,” said Amar Abrol, Chief Commercial Officer at MatchMove. “By leveraging F.CODE Easy, we can enable multiple use cases for our clients who in turn create greater value and utility for their customers, employees, suppliers and partners. We look forward to working together and introducing new innovative solutions to the market.”


About Mastercard (NYSE:MA), www.mastercard.com

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

About IDEMIA

IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, provides a trusted environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities (such as pay, connect and travel), in the physical as well as digital space. Securing our identity has become mission critical in the world we live in today. By standing for Augmented Identity, an identity that ensures privacy and trust and guarantees secure, authenticated and verifiable transactions, we reinvent the way we think, produce, use and protect one of our greatest assets – our identity – whether for individuals or for objects, whenever and wherever security matters. We provide Augmented Identity for international clients from Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors. With close to 15,000 employees around the world, IDEMIA serves clients in 180 countries. For more information, visit www.idemia.com / Follow @IdemiaGroup on Twitter.

About MatchMove

MatchMove, which is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is one of the world’s fastest growing and most disruptive fintech companies in digital payments and next-generation banking. MatchMove’s proprietary Banking Wallet OS™ enables 'Banking-As-A-Service' and the capabilities of Spend.Send.Lend™ within any app. The platform empowers businesses and their customers to Spend both online and offline easily and safely, via instantly issued prepaid cards on major card networks. Its Send capabilities include P2P domestic transfers, cross-border remittances, P2M and mass disbursements to global recipients. MatchMove’s platform further extends to Lend, where credit scores are assigned based on customers’ spending and sending patterns to offer customised lending solutions. MatchMove’s solutions help enterprise clients digitise payments and give the financially underserved segments the empowerment to move their money anytime and anywhere. For more information, please visit www.matchmove.com.

Mastercard Partners with Signzy for Global Rollout of Video KYC

Enables easy, fast and secure digital onboarding of end users to connect them to the financial mainstream

Mastercard today announced a partnership with Signzy, a leading RegTech startup based in India, to enable Signzy’s video-based KYC (Know Your Customer) solution for its banking customers. With this partnership, Mastercard customers will benefit from a completely paperless, remote and secure onboarding solution for end-users.

Deployment of Video KYC will allow end-users to complete and submit their KYC application from the safety and security of their homes. This would be 99% faster than the traditional paper-based KYC process. Backed by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, Signzy’s Video KYC solution features security protocols to prevent unauthorized system intrusion or attempted fraud. Further, the solution offers industry-leading scalability to deal with high volumes of video KYC transactions.

In India, this launch will further Mastercard’s goal to drive inclusive growth via financial inclusion by enabling individuals and small businesses to go online. Earlier this year, the payments technology company partnered with various players and launched low-cost innovations that allow merchants to start accepting digital payments without incurring additional or high infrastructural costs. Video KYC will further the ease and speed of onboarding in minimal time.

Arpit Ratan, Co-founder of Signzy said, “Mastercard has strongly advocated digital transformation in the financial services space and has led by example. It is a matter of great pride to be chosen as their Video KYC partner. Our efforts are geared to offer our partners a mobile-first, customer-centric digital experience for their customers. Signzy’s AI-led, on-premise API framework allows easy integration across multiple platforms providing a quicker and completely remote and paperless customer-onboarding, taking care of all security protocols.”

Rajeev Kumar, Senior Vice President, Market Development, South Asia, Mastercard, said, “Mastercard’s partnership with Signzy will shorten the traditional clunky, time consuming and expensive KYC process for financial institutions. Signzy’s AI and ML has well-established links to many KYC databases in India which allows seamless support for e-KYC and Video-KYC. Therefore, the platform also solves the problem of many SME’s in India who may not have all the KYC documents. With V-KYC, SME’s can now complete their contactless KYC process remotely at their convenience from their homes and shops.”

Rajeev also added, “Mastercard and Signzy are assisting merchant acquiring banks to easily on-board SMEs in remote corners of the country for digital payments acceptance, open SME accounts and NBFCs to underwrite and disburse SME loans. During the nationwide lockdown, Signzy’s Video KYC come as a big relief for financial institutions and SMEs.”

Signzy’s clientele has more than 90 Indian financial institutions, ranging from banks, NBFCs, insurance firms, Asset Management Companies and so on. Some of the marquee names in this list include the State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank, Aditya Birla Sunlife AMC, and BoB Financial Ltd etc. Moreover, Signzy’s offices in New York and Dubai and partnership with Mastercard equip the company to serve financial institutions across the globe. Mastercard has collaborated with Signzy to develop onboarding solutions for merchants and has a global partnership with them to scale up the solution across markets worldwide.

Recently, Mastercard also announced a commitment of Rs 250 crores (US$33 million) to help reboot Indian SMEs and enable business recovery amid Covid-19 outbreak. As part of this commitment, Mastercard will roll out multiple initiatives to:

• bring small businesses into the digital economy by enabling them to go online
• provide them with catalytic inputs to operate growth-oriented businesses, including but not limited to access to credit, know-how, and value-added services while supporting them in meeting the new norms of safety and health protection
• empower women owned enterprises to unlock their economic potential

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals; financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

About Signzy

Signzy is an AI-powered RPA platform for financial services. No matter how complex your workflow or operational complexity, Signzy is able to completely automate your back-operations decision-making process into a real-time API. This is possible due to a combination of Nebula — a no-code AI model builder and a Fintech API Marketplace of over 200+ APIs. Today, the startup works with over 90+ FIs globally including the 4 largest banks in India and a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US. Globally, Signzy has a strong partnership with MasterCard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve its customers in the two geographies. The startup’s product team of 120+ people is building a global AI product in Bangalore.

To Enable Contact-Free ATM Cash Withdrawals in India, Empays Payment Systems partners with Mastercard

Cardless ATM cash withdrawals will now be more secure from fraud, and interoperable across banks while providing a seamless user experience

Empays Payment Systems India Pvt Ltd, the company that built and runs the IMT Payment System and cloud-based payment solutions, today announced a partnership with Mastercard, a leading technology company in the global payments industry, to launch ‘Cardless ATM powered by Mastercard®’ in India. With this partnership, Empays will upgrade the basic technology behind the IMT Payment System to incorporate the requirements of Mastercard Cardless ATM enabling a true EMV-capable cash withdrawal transaction. 

The IMT Payment System powers the largest ATM network for cardless cash withdrawals in the world and is available across 40,000 ATMs in India. It uses SMS technology to enable cash withdrawals from participating ATMs without any physical contact with a card. Empays is authorized by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a national payment system.

‘Cardless ATM powered by Mastercard®’ will help users to digitally locate the nearest enabled ATM and initiate a withdrawal by simply scanning a QR code on the mobile phone, using their banking app. It will allow users to withdraw cash safely following 4 simple steps at the nearest enabled ATM – Open banking app, Scan QR on ATM, Authenticate withdrawal amount on banking app and Pick-up cash from ATM - without the need to insert the physical debit/credit card into the ATM, thereby minimizing any unnecessary contact, making it a cleaner withdrawal option vis-à-vis regular cash withdrawals, especially during current times of COVID-19.

The solution is designed to be interoperable with any Mastercard member bank making it a scalable option for banks providing a consistent experience to their consumers. India will be the first country outside the United States where this product will be available to users.

Commenting on the partnership, Porush Singh, Division President, South Asia, Mastercard said, “At Mastercard, it is our endeavor to use cutting-edge technology to improve customer satisfaction and security. In the current unprecedented times, this has taken on an urgency and importance as we balance between the need to protect ourselves and the need to continue transactions essential to maintain our daily lives. With ‘Cardless ATM powered by Mastercard’,  users will be able to withdraw cash safely by completely eliminating the need to use a physical card or touch an ATM PIN pad, while providing the security of an EMV transaction, making it safe, quick and easy for people to access cash."

Ravi Rajagopalan, Founder and CEO, Empays Payment Systems said, “We are excited at the prospect of working with Mastercard to bring their industry-leading Cardless ATM technology to the Indian market via IMT Payment System. We deeply admire Mastercard for their commitment to emerging markets and the way the company differentiates their global technology offerings based on local market needs. We value the partnership and look forward to engaging our member banks in discussions very soon."

The advanced technology will soon be available to any existing and future IMT member bank in India enabling a smooth upgrade that will help in reducing their technology spend and shortening the time to market window. Both companies are working to launch pilots with consenting banks in a few months’ time.  

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

About Empays Payment Systems

Empays is a unique Indian FinTech operating in India and overseas. In India Empays founded and operates the IMT Payment System, a network of Cardless ATMs that is the largest such in the world. It is licensed by the RBI as a payment system. Empays provides advanced Cloud-based Digital Banking services through its Smart Digital Payment Platform, that powers cross border payments, card issuance, account opening and digital KYC.

Mastercard Provides Free Online STEM Lessons to Children, Teachers and Parents

Mastercard extended access to its signature STEM curriculum, Girls4Tech™, through a suite of new online, creative educational resources. The program has been designed to help parents and teachers engage and inspire kids, ages 8-12. 

Through the newly launched website Girls4Tech Connect, as well as through activities made in collaboration with our education partner Scholastic, teachers and parents can download lessons to help students learn about STEM topics, from the comfort of their homes or anywhere around the world.

These activities are built on global science and math standards – and incorporate Mastercard’s deep expertise in payments technology and innovation – to enable children to discover a range of STEM careers, such as Fraud Detective, Data Scientist and Software Engineer. 

Now in its sixth year, Girls4Tech has engaged more than 800,000 students across the globe through inquiry-based activities and real-world challenges, all with the goal of inspiring more girls to pursue STEM careers and reduce the gender gap in these fields.

“We know that these are challenging times for parents and teachers on many fronts and hope that these learning resources are a fun way to engage and inspire kids about STEM while at home,” says Susan Warner, vice president of Community Engagement at Mastercard, and founder of Girls4Tech. “The easy access to the website enhances what we’ve done in so many workshops. We look forward to building on both efforts when it’s once again safe to gather in person."

Beginning this week, new activities will be posted on a weekly basis at the Girls4Tech website, Facebook page and Twitter handle. Lessons are currently available in English, with additional Spanish and Chinese language content to follow in the coming weeks. 

While all lessons are designed for students to work independently, materials are also available for teachers to guide online sessions. 

Impact Highlights from the First Six Years

• To date, Girls4Tech has reached more than 800,000 girls in 27 countries and on 6 continents. 


• The program has engaged more than 4,400 employee mentors worldwide.


• Mastercard has partnered with Scholastic, Be Better China, Major League Baseball, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), R&A and YCAB in Indonesia to further scale the program and offer STEM skills in unique ways to girls ages 8-16.


• As technology skills evolve, a new curriculum was launched in 2019 to give students deeper exposure to the growing fields of cybersecurity and AI – Girls4Tech Cybersecurity & AI.


• Girls4Tech programs also extend to girls ages 13-16 with Girls4Tech 2.0, as well as a 20-week coding program, Girls4Tech & Code for girls 8-10.

To learn more about Girls4Tech and access the online lessons, please visit Girls4Tech Connect.

About Mastercard, www.mastercard.com

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

India maintains 52nd Rank in Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs

Mastercard recently released the third edition of Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) - an index focusing on female entrepreneurs’ ability to capitalize on opportunities granted through various supporting conditions within their local environments. India ranked 52nd (unchanged from the previous two years) amongst 58 countries studied, significantly behind the United States (1st) and China (6th). 

While India’s position in the index highlights the need for a further enabling environment for Indian women entrepreneurs, it also recognizes several silver linings for India. For instance, the Government has recently launched a 59‐minute loan platform that allows for easy access to credit for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). Several such steps have helped the country register improvement in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in India from 60.6 (rank 44) to 67.2 (rank 39) as well as an increase in ‘Women Financial Inclusion (F/M)’ from 58.2 (rank 51) to 69.0 (rank 43) on the World Bank “Doing Business Database, 2018”. 

This year’s  rankings reflect that women make better business inroads and have higher labor force participation rates in open and vibrant markets such as New Zealand (rank 2nd), Singapore (rank 8th) and Australia (rank 13th), where the support for SMEs and ease of doing business are high. Therefore, the report urges other countries to nurture similar conditions. 

The global Index is based on publicly available data from international organizations including the International Labor Organization, UNESCO and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. It tracks the progress and achievement of women entrepreneurs and business owners in 58 societies (representing nearly 80% of the world’s female labor force) across three components: (i) Women’s Advancement Outcomes, (ii) Knowledge Assets & Financial Access, and (iii) Supporting Entrepreneurial Factors. 



Commenting on India’s position in the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, Vikas Varma, Chief Operating Officer, South Asia, Mastercard, said, “Mastercard believes that women entrepreneurship and participation in the workforce is critical for inclusive growth of any society. In India, Mastercard has been working along with government organizations, industry bodies, and NGOs to provide tools and networks that help women entrepreneurs become a part of digital economy.

Over the years, these programs have brought a positive change to the lives of thousands of women entrepreneurs. Mastercard is certain that the global insights and learnings from MIWE will make the company’s ongoing programs more meaningful for women entrepreneurs in India."

MIWE suggests that the progress of women entrepreneurs has been held back by one or more obstacles in nearly all the 58 economies covered. These obstacles are largely caused by perceptions of gender bias, which contribute to poor social and cultural acceptance, lack of self-belief and access to financial funding or venture capital. Below is India’s performance on three components used for developing the index –

 

• Women’s Advancement Outcomes
  India scores 28.7 with respect to Women’s Advancement Outcomes, i.e., degree of bias against women as workforce participants, political and business leaders, as well as the financial strength and entrepreneurial inclination of women.

 

• Knowledge Assets and Financial Assets
  India scores 70.5 in terms of Knowledge Assets & Financial Access for women entrepreneurs hence providing much lower degree of access to basic financial services, advanced knowledge assets to women, and better support the small and medium enterprises.

• Women Entrepreneurial Activity Rate:
  India’s score has witnessed a decline and is currently 58.6. This is due to an increase in men’s entrepreneurial activity rate from leading to a widening in gender gap. Despite this, India stands out for its high proportion of innovative entrepreneurs, with nearly half report they have innovative services or products.

In addition to highlighting the progress of women entrepreneurs on a global scale, Mastercard is committed to support the businesses owned by women around the world. In Asia Pacific, Mastercard is cultivating entrepreneurs through programs like Start Path and Fintech Express. Mastercard has supported a range of start-ups including Razorpay, Zeta, ToneTag, Fluid AI, Happay, Signzy, ftcash and Syntizen. The company has provided financial literacy training to nearly 200,000 women across India, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam, and offers grants to women to grow their businesses through the Mastercard Impact Fund. 

Furthermore, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth has helped to bring to life more than 750 financial inclusion programs across more than 80 countries to tackle income inequality challenges. In India, the Center has been working with Maharashtra based NGOs such as Mann Deshi and Industree foundation to support women entrepreneurs with access to digital tools, network, and knowledge to grow their business. Through the grant provided by the Center, Mann Deshi Foundation and Bank has created the first rural women Chamber of Commerce with three chapters to serve 10,000 business owners through knowledge transfer of business acumen skills, peer mentoring, access to financing and markets, and identification of supply chain linkages. The partnership with Industree Foundation has facilitated the adoption of digital payments among 100,000 women artisans across India. 

Download the Mastercard Index for Women Entrepreneurs 2019 white paper and infographic.

Methodology 

The Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2019 is the third report profiling the progress and achievement of women entrepreneurs/business owners across 58 societies around the world. With Angola as the newest market added to the Middle East & Africa region, the Index expands its attempt to track the factors that underpin the gender gap among business owners. Representing nearly 80% of the world’s female labor force, it highlights how the 58 markets differ at 3 levels: (i) Women’s Advancement Outcomes, (ii) Knowledge Assets & Financial Access, and (iii) Supporting Entrepreneurial Factors.  The results also shed light on which factors and conditions are the most conducive in helping to narrow the gender gap among female entrepreneurs/business owners, or the most inhibitive and disabling, thereby weighing on women’s ability to thrive in business.  

For Steady Online Shopping Mastercard launches new Mobile 1st Payment Feature

Global payment solutions major Mastercard on Tuesday launched a card payment feature that will allow customers to do uninterrupted transactions while shopping online.

Identity Check Express is the next generation, mobile first authentication solution that will eliminate unnecessary friction and enhance security of online transactions without the need to be re-directed to a third website to complete the payment process.

The new feature was showcased at the Global Mastercard Cybersecurity Summit, held for the first time in India, which uses device intelligence and behavioral biometrics, with the latest EMV 3-D secure and FIDO authentication standards to deliver an uninterrupted mobile payment experience.

The solution will help eliminate unnecessary friction and enhance the security of online transactions, it said.

Mastercard, citing its analysis, said up to 20 per cent of mobile e-commerce transactions are abandoned mid-way.

The analysis suggested that the existing methods to verify an identity online can take shoppers away from a merchant's website and are time-consuming due to issues such as consumers being redirected to a browser environment for an in-app payment or mobile network fluctuations.

With Identity Check Express, Mastercard will offer a frictionless payment experience to Mastercard cardholders at leading merchants for an amount less than Rs 2,000 on their trusted mobile devices by sharing a onetime merchant specific consent.

For transactions above Rs 2,000, cardholders will be able to authenticate themselves with a transaction PIN of their choice.

The feature, apart from mobile transactions, will support payments done through desktops as well.

"With the growing spending power and aspirations of Indian consumers fuelling the growth of e-commerce in the country, Mastercard's digital by default DNA drives us to constantly innovate to enhance the convenience and security of digital payments.

"The launch of Identity Check Express does just that for consumers and merchants. Mastercard is ensuring that you are you - without any doubt - by strengthening and simplifying checkout to ensure higher transaction success rates while mitigating fraud," said Ajay Bhalla, President, Cyber and Intelligence Solutions, Mastercard.

Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice President, Paytm said Mastercard is building a simple, easy to use mobile payments system that leverages their extensive card network in India.

"This will undoubtedly accelerate the digital India mission and get many more people to transact using Paytm. Our partnership with Mastercard will benefit Indians in every corner of the country with seamless digital payments capabilities," said Abbot.

The payments solution major has committed an investment of USD 1 billion over the next five years in India as part of its commitment to strengthen and secure digital transactions space. PTI KPM

Mastercard to Invest $1 Billion in India including Fintech Startups over Next 5 Yrs

Mastercard, a US-based payment processing products and solutions giant has announced its commitment to invest of US$1 billion ( ~ ₹ 7,000 Crore) over the next five years in India.

In addition to the company's earlier investment of US$1 billion between 2014-19 in India, the additional investment tranche of $1 billion will go towards establishing a full on-soil domestic transactions processing center in and for India at Pune and investing in fintech startups in India.

Of the proposed $1 billion investment, $300 million would be on setting up domestic transactions processing centre at Pune.

Mastercard, which last year had invested in ToneTag, a Bangalore-based digital payments startup, is constantly evaluating opportunities to invest in fintech startups through its India Investment Fund, one of whose investments in the recent months was in Syntizen, a Hyderabad-based and T-Hub incubated B2B digital identity-centric product startup.

The remaining investment of $1 Bn India fund would be made on the services hub that would take care of various aspects, including authentication, fraud and safety and security solutions, analytics for customers in India and abroad. It would be set up in various locations.

Commenting on the strategic investment and the longer-term business strategy, Ari Sarker, co-president, Asia Pacific, Mastercard said, "India is a unique country with a progressive payments ecosystem. We are excited with our incremental and significant investment plans for this market, which we believe will be compelling differentiators for us. This investment builds on what is an enduring and focused strategy for us in this market, and will also enable us to explore avenues to expand our local collaborations and partnerships while deepening our commitment to the government’s vision of moving towards a cashless society."

Mastercard has already opened its new offices in Bengaluru and Gurugram, opened a Mastercard Lab & Operations Hub in Pune in 2017, and a Technology Centre in Vadodara. The company's workforce in India has grown to 2000 currently from mere 29 in 2013. India represents 14% of Mastercard’s global workforce.

With its local India Investment Fund, Mastercard has supported a range of startups including Razorpay, Zeta, Fluid AI, Happay, SignZy and ftcash.

With its recent investee startup Syntizen, Mastercard is developing Aadhaar-based authentication solutions. The startup founded in 2014 helps check attendance in government schools for mid-day meals by connecting Syntizen to the government’s biometrics database.

With Syntizen solutions, Mastercard has already helped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation save Rs 50 crore in wages by providing a geo-tagging enabled employee monitoring tool. In an another initiative, Mastercard and Syntizen provided a digital portal to Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University that helped the varsity identify and blacklist more than 900 fake faculties and de-affiliate 203 fake colleges.

Moreover, Mastercard is also collaborated with Indian government-owned India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) as its exclusive authentication service agency. It facilitated the opening of 19 million accounts and 975,000 transactions for the payments bank between January 2017 and December 2018.

Sources - The Hindu, United News of India, SmallInvestors.in

​Finally, Mastercard Exploring the Use of Blockchain in Securing Credit Cards

Global credit card giant Mastercard is now finally started exploring usage of Blockchain technology in securely verifying payment cards at the point-of-sale (PoS), in order to curb skimming of credit cards.

For uninitiated, Skimming is a method used by identity thieves or hackers to capture information from a credit card holder. To restrict this, Mastercard is going to put credit card payment on a public blockchain.

According to a patent application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and released on Thursday, Mastercard has come up with a conveyance and retrieval processes to verify users' payment credentials over a "publicly accessible blockchain."

The patent application document explains that the two-way method first encodes an image of a payment card and then stores it on the blockchain after encryption with a public and private key. Upon a retrieval request when a payment is being made, the system will use the provided private keys to decrypt the image so it can be verified.

Mastercard intends to use this system with PoS devices to make transactions highly secure, as the card need not be physically presented, and users need not be concerned about their payment credentials being "skimmed" from the payment device.

Also Read - Sound Waves-based Payment Startup Tonetag Raises $10 Mn from Amazon, Mastercard

Notably, this is not the first time Mastercard is exploring blockchain technology as earlier, in October 2017, Mastercard has already started offering the ability to send money over a blockchain tech rather than by swiping a credit card by opening up its blockchain to certain banks and merchants as an alternative method of paying for goods and services.

Additionally, in an another blockchain-related exploration by Mastercard, it was revealed in the same patent update, that the company is also seeking to build a blockchain to allow consumers to broadcast their travel itineraries and reservation requests to merchants.

Last November, MasterCard had also filed a patent for instantaneous payments using blockchain technology that

Meanwhile, an another credit card giant Visa had already forayed into blockchain world when the company, in last November, rolled out the first, pilot phase of its blockchain-based business-to-business payments service, B2B Connect, to ease cross-border payments by facilitating direct payments between institutions, cutting out the middleman the industry currently relies on.

The transparency and irrefutability of blockchain-based transactions make fraudulent manipulation of data almost impossible due to the very fact of Blockchain's underlying process i.e -- If data is changed on one node, every other node would have to reflect that change for it to take effect. In terms of hack-resistance, there is no contest between blockchain and traditional, centralized banking.