Mastercard, Visa launch initiatives to expand access to digital banking, drive growth

What do global payments and football have in common? Danish goalkeeping legend Peter Schmeichel can tell you. In a new promotional video, the stopper extols the virtues of Mastercard’s Click to Pay tokenized payment system, and encourages European shoppers to embrace passkeys, biometrics and trusted devices as the successors to passwords and plastic.

“The future of payments should feel more like a tap‑in, not an overhead kick,” says Schmeichel. Tokenzation reaches for this goal, enabling consumers to authorise payments with a one-time passcode, passkeys or biometrics. “Innovative gameplay by Mastercard is making the difference.”

Mastercard says it is halfway towards its goal of phasing out manual card entry online across Europe and moving fully to biometrics and tokenization by 2030. It’s yet more evidence of a global shift to digital payments and digitally integrated economies.

Mastercard, Ericsson want to make it easier to launch financial services

A new partnership between Ericsson and Mastercard aims to simplify access to money movement tools for telecom service providers, fintechs and banks, with the goal of increasing financial digital inclusion for unbanked and underbanked communities.

A release from the payments giant says that by integrating the Ericsson Fintech Platform with the Mastercard Move portfolio of money movement tools, the collaboration will enable clients to expand digital wallet capabilities and more easily launch new payment services. Simplified connectivity, integration and compliance means lower operational barriers and faster time to market – crucial for digital ecosystems across emerging markets.

Both parties in the deal have broad global reach. Mastercard Move enables money movement across more than 200 countries and territories and supports transactions in 150 currencies. Ericsson’s fintech platform operates in 22 countries, serving more than 120 million active users and processing more than 4 billion transactions every month across digital wallets, payments, remittances, lending and loyalty services.

A stated goal of the collaboration is to advance financial inclusion and accessibility, in part by accelerating the adoption of digital payments and the growth of digital economies. It will begin its rollout in the Middle East and Africa, where there is strong demand for mobile money, remittances and interoperable payment services.

Pratik Khowala, global head of transfer solutions for Mastercard, says that “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. This collaboration not only meets the rising demand for digital cross-border payments, but also accelerates progress toward a more connected, inclusive and dynamic global digital economy.”

Visa launches Kenya partnership with I&M Bank

Visa has announced a partnership with I&M Bank to accelerate digital payments in Kenya. According to a release, the goal is to strengthen digital payment infrastructure and expand the adoption of Visa-powered products in the Kenyan market, as a way to spur economic growth and financial inclusion.

The plan includes upgrading digital payments systems in under-served areas and boosting regional trade through new options for cross-border payments.

“Visa is committed to fostering innovation and empowering consumers and businesses across East Africa,” says Chad Pollock, vice president and general manager for Visa East Africa.
“By combining Visa’s global network and payment expertise with I&M Bank’s strong regional presence and deep market knowledge, we will deliver increased value to consumers and businesses with tools to make their financial lives more simple, reliable and secure.”

Visa acquires Argentinian firms Prisma, Newpay

A separate announcement from Visa says it has entered into “a definitive agreement to acquire Prisma Medios de Pago S.A.U. (“Prisma”) and Newpay S.A.U. (“Newpay”) in Argentina from Advent International.”

The deal aims to accelerate the deployment of technologies such as tokenization, biometric authentication and agentic commerce solutions.

Per the release, Prisma provides credit, debit and prepaid card issuer processing, and Newpay is a multi-network infrastructure provider that operates real-time payments services, the Banelco ATM network and the bill payment platform PagoMisCuentas. Visa previously owned a stake in the two businesses along with 14 Argentine banks. Their return to the fold will give Visa card issuer processing services, a real-time payments system, an ATM network and bill-payment capabilities in Argentina.

“This acquisition is an important step for Visa in Argentina, strengthening our client partnerships and advancing innovation across the payments ecosystem,” says Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa. “By bringing together Prisma’s and Newpay’s deep local expertise with Visa’s global solutions and technology, we will empower our clients to make payments simpler, faster, and more secure for consumers and businesses.”

The transaction is subject to closing conditions and expected to close in Visa’s fiscal Q2 2026.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  digital payments  |  financial inclusion  |  Mastercard  |  payment passkey  |  tokenization  |  Visa