Mastercard's Paypass Wallet Will Span Online, Mobile, In-store Shopping

The company will let third parties resell its own service or use its API to build their own

By Stephen Lawson
Mon, May 07, 2012

IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau) MasterCard WorldWide announced a digital wallet on Monday that consumers will be able to use for purchases in stores, on the Web and on their mobile phones.

The global credit-card company's entry into digital wallets will tie into its PayPass point-of-sale system, with nearly 500,000 locations around the world where consumers can tap a card or phone with NFC (near-field communications) to make a purchase. But with the new offering, called PayPass Wallet Services, MasterCard will also allow third parties to create payment systems under their own brands.

MasterCard announced the system at an event on Monday evening in New Orleans, the night before the CTIA Wireless trade show begins. In a Tuesday morning keynote speech at the show, the company will also unveil a partnership with Intel to help PC makers build PayPass tap-to-pay hardware into ultrabooks.

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