Vodafone Expands Wallets and Transfer Services with MasterCard and PayPal
Vodafone has expanded its global money wallet and money transfer services via programs involving PayPal and MasterCard.
In Italy, customers of Vodafone Italia and who use Vodafone Wallet now can make NFC mobile payments through the PayPal network. Vodafone said that in Italy, 25 percent of retail terminals accept contactless payments, double the rate in 2014, and that 16 million Italian consumers have contactless payments enabled on their smartphones. In April, Vodafone announced a similar program for Spain.
In Egypt, MasterCard said that it has completed the migration of some 2 million Vodafone Cash wallets to the payment card network’s “open mobile payments ecosystem.” That means transactions made through the money transfer program operated by Vodafone will be processed through MasterCard’s Mobile Payment Gateway platform, which MasterCard and the Egyptian Banks Co. set up in 2013. The result of that move gives Vodafone Cash users the ability access more services through the platform, including transferring money to any other mobile wallet user in Egypt.
Vodafone has about 38 million total subscribers in that country. The deal “creates further opportunities for MasterCard to use its technology and innovation to include more unbanked Egyptians in the financial mainstream and in the process help develop the industry at large and increase economic mobility,” said Khalid Elgibali, division president, Middle East and North Africa, MasterCard.
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