Mastercard launches Pay Local to process card payments across APAC

By Gloria Mathias

Mastercard has introduced Mastercard Pay Local, a global service that allows consumers to make card payments to merchants using local digital wallets.

With Mastercard Pay Local, resident cardholders or international travellers can easily link their credit or debit cards to a digital wallet and immediately shop at participating merchants without needing to set up or top up a prepaid account.

Leading wallets in the Asia Pacific, such as DANA in Indonesia, Touch ‘n Go in Malaysia, Bakong in Cambodia, and LankaPay in Sri Lanka, will use Mastercard Pay Local to facilitate payments for consumers at more than 35 million merchants in the region that accept these wallets.

Beyond Asia Pacific, the service is also geared towards regions where digital wallets are widely used for everyday purchases, such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa.

“With Pay Local, Mastercard is extending its global network to partner wallets and expanding acceptance by making it possible for Asia’s digital wallets to process card-based payments. This creates a low-cost, simple, stable, and secure connection between over 35 million merchants in the Asia Pacific and two billion Mastercard cardholders,” said Sandeep Malhotra, EVP of Products & Innovation, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “Locals benefit from new payment options while tourists can use their cards as they do at home, making travel infinitely easier, with one less thing to worry about while on the road.”

Pay Local builds upon Mastercard’s existing collaborations with leading wallet providers, including Alipay and Weixin Pay in the Chinese Mainland and Octopus in Hong Kong SAR, to offer a convenient way for international visitors to pay like locals when travelling to these locations, regardless of where in the world their Mastercard card was issued. In addition, a range of digital wallets across the region already accept Mastercard cards for funding, enabling easy payments at merchant locations that accept these wallets, including GrabPay in Southeast Asia, Maya in the Philippines, ShopBack in Singapore, and TrueMoney in Thailand.