As the share of digital payments in Europe keeps on growing to reach 38% of payments by 2020, the continued transformation of Mastercard to an even more digital company is driven by the rapid growth, support and success of Masterpass, the company’s digital payment service. As part of this momentum, Mastercard today announced issuers and merchants around Europe that are making Masterpass available to their customers, enabling fast, simple and secure digital payment experiences across devices and channels – online, in-app and in-store. By end of June 2016, Masterpass was accessible to 200 million consumers across 18 countries in Europe, almost twice as much as by end of Q1 2016.

Forty major issuers across 18 countries in Europe, including KBC Bank in Ireland, Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy, SEB, Nordea, Swedbank, ICA Banken and Resurs Bank in Sweden and Viseca in Switzerland are now using Masterpass to integrate digital payments into their services.

Roland Zwyssig, CMO of Viseca Card Services SA said: “we have chosen Masterpass by Mastercard as it is a global, customer-friendly and secure solution.  From January to June 2016 we have achieved 400,000 Masterpass registrations, really impressive.”

As e-commerce spend in Europe is predicted to grow 55% by 2020 and the number of global smartphone subscription grow from 1.9 billion in 2013 to 5.6 billion by 2019, Masterpass offers the only issuer-branded solution that supports multichannel and multi-device commerce. By adding digital payment functionality through Masterpass, issuers can enhance and differentiate their existing product suite, including their mobile banking application, and integrate its proprietary services – including balance display, purchase alerts and paying with points – to differentiate its solution from other digital payment options in the market. Key issuers in Asia, Europe and the United States have committed to auto-enroll 80 million wallets into Masterpass by year end.

Global Expansion and Enhancements to Masterpass

The Masterpass vision is to support all forms of commerce in order to address the widest range of merchant experiences and consumer needs. Currently available in 33 markets around the world and with planned expansion to 36 by the end of 2016, Masterpass stores all payment information, including card details from both Mastercard and other payment networks, shipping information, and payment preferences in one convenient, secure place.

In July, Mastercard launched the next stage in the Masterpass journey – an omni-channel all-digital payment service for issuers, merchants and consumers leveraging the most advanced methods of payment security available today, including network tokenization. Now live in the United States, the enhanced Masterpass service will continue to roll out in Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North America during 2016 and into 2017. In Europe, Mastercard is on course to secure more than 225 million cards and payment devices with its tokenisation encryption technology to combat fraud across 18 countries.

Merchants Offer Masterpass Acceptance to Provide Innovative and Secure Digital Shopping Experiences to Consumers

Masterpass is currently available at hundreds of thousands of merchants online or in-app. Consumers are also now able to use Masterpass at the more than six million merchant locations in 77 countries that accept contactless payments. New merchants including, American Tourister, Kinepolis and Tui Travel in Belgium, Galeria Kaufhof, Media Markt and Saturn in Germany, 3Italia and Vodafone in Italy, Letsbonus and Lastminute in Spain, Arlanda Express in Sweden, Boots, See Tickets and The Hut Group in the UK join the more than 100,000 retailers in the region that accept Masterpass, including Trenitalia, Alitalia and Czech Railways.  Masterpass provides merchants with multilayered security, leveraging techniques such as data encryption and card tokenization, to help protect against the risk of fraud.

In the UK, Mastercard is reinventing the way people pay when eating out. With Qkr! with Masterpass, consumers can pay their bill, add items to their order, split tabs, and add a tip all from their smartphone. The service is now widely available in the UK with restaurant chains such as wagamama, Ask Italian, Zizzi’s and Carluccio’s all offering it as a way to pay for their customers.

“Europe is at the forefront of the move to digital at speed and Europeans are demanding not just simple and smart ways to pay and interact but also enhanced experiences which makes life easier digitally.  Together with our partners we are at the leading edge of transforming the way people pay every day and already 200 million can have access to seamless payments via smartphone or connected device with Masterpass. The global momentum we’re achieving with banks, merchants and consumers is proof-positive of our efforts to create simple and secure digital payment experiences anywhere consumers want to shop,” said Javier Perez, President Europe at Mastercard.

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About Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry.  We operate the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories.  Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone.  Follow us on Twitter @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.