MasterCard, Deutsche Telekom Partner on Mobile Payments in Europe
07/02/2012| 08:03am US/Eastern
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By Victoria Stilwell
Credit card company MasterCard Inc. (>> Mastercard Inc) will partner with Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGY, DTE.XE) to launch a mobile payment platform that allows customers to pay for goods and services with their cellphones.
The partnership is designed increase mobile payments with Deutsche Telekom's 93 million mobile customers across Europe.
MasterCard, Visa Inc. (V) and American Express Co. (AXP) all market their own digital wallets to simplify how consumers pay for purchases on e-commerce websites and brick-and-mortar merchants.
The first consumer roll-out of the new European partnership will take place in Poland later this year. German customers will also be introduced to mobile payments, beginning with a trial of mobile phone tags and cards and continuing into the first half of 2013 with a mobile wallet service.
The mobile wallet platform will be open to other issuing banks and partners, and products will also be launched in other European markets.
The MasterCard products will be issued through Deutsche Telekom's subsidiary ClickandBuy, which owns an e-money license.
"With MasterCard we have a well-known and experienced partner generating growth in this important market segment. We want to build a comprehensive ecosystem around mobile payment, helping Telekom to realize its strategy of being the first choice for customers regarding connected life and work," said Thomas Kiessling, Deutsche Telekom's chief product and innovation officer.
Vodafone Group PLC (VOD, VODPF, VOD.LN) in February said it agreed to a deal with Visa to develop Vodafone-branded mobile payment services to the company's base of 398 million customers in more than 30 countries.
These services were to be launched later this year in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and the U.K., with rollouts elsewhere in Vodafone's global portfolio to follow.
MasterCard shares were inactive in premarket trade at $430.11. The stock is up 37% in the last 12 months.
Write to Victoria Stilwell at Victoria.Stilwell@dowjones.com
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