Mastercard & CleverCards to expand digital card usage across Europe

By Megha Bhattacharya

Mastercard and CleverCards have joined forces in a bid to expand the adoption of digital cards across Europe as well as simplify the payments value chain. CleverCards will be utilising Mastercard’s core digital platform – Digital Enablement Service and integrating its processing and services capabilities into their platform.

CleverCards’ technology aims to simplify the payments value chain, enabling businesses to bypass several intermediary card issuing processes and instead easily send a digital prepaid Mastercard card directly to an email address or mobile phone number. The recipients of the digital card can instantly spend their funds online or in-store using digital wallets, such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, to make secure contactless payments.

Jason Lane, Executive Vice President, Market Development Europe, Mastercard, commented, “The 2020 landscape saw the shift to digital payments accelerated for both online and in-store via contactless. As the European partner of choice for leading fintechs, we are proud to help them play a significant role in driving this shift towards digital economies. To that end, we are delighted to take our alliance with CleverCards to the next stage.”

Recently, Bulgaria-based Fibank (First Investment Bank) teamed up with Mastercard to launch MyFin digital wallet, a platform for enabling fast money transfers and online payments. According to Fibank, the digital wallet users can apply for and be issued a digital debit card or a plastic debit card. The platform offers other features allowing users, in addition to standard money transfers, to exchange payments with other MyFin customers (peer to peer) and use payment links.

CleverCards founder & CEO Kealan Lennon explained, “We are delighted to build our partnership with Mastercard and join their FinTech Express programme. Beyond the support and integration of Mastercard technologies into our platform, this partnership is a major boost for CleverCards, providing us with unprecedented, unique access to Mastercard business development teams in key markets and to key commercial clients, which along with their brand endorsement and marketing support will significantly accelerate CleverCards’ opportunity to scale its growth across Europe and the US.”