MasterCard Incorporated MA has brought about yet another enhancement in its payment system. The company, which is well-known for having introduced contactless payments that built the foundation for secure mobile transactions, is now up for capitalizing on the benefits of Android Pay – an app launched by Google Inc. GOOGL. However, this announcement failed to drive share price owing to broader market dynamics.
MasterCard had launched contactless payments more than a decade ago. The company followed it up with the introduction of a complementary digital enablement platform in 2013. These endeavors have not only been helping consumers make payments easily but have also been ensuring the safety of their payments. This has made MasterCard lucrative to individuals preferring the plastic mode of payments and hence, increased the customer base for the same. As a result, today MasterCard contactless is accepted at more than three million merchant points in 68 countries globally.
The company now intends to help the owners of eligible Android devices by allowing them to use the MasterCard credit, debit, prepaid and small business cards conveniently to make payments. Thus, the company has associated Android Pay with the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (“MDES”). This association will provide MasterCard’s customers with more options for paying on the go. With MDES and Android pay, MasterCard will use secure tokens to facilitate payments from a connected android device.
Usage of this app will not only entitle consumers to the regular security, benefits and guarantees of a MasterCard transaction, but will also add an extra layer of security by keeping the card details confidential. This, in turn, is expected to prompt more and more customers to use Android Pay and thus, increase the number of payment transactions for MasterCard.
MasterCard currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the financial transaction services space include Qiwi plc QIWI and Total System Services, Inc. TSS. While Qiwi sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Total System holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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