MasterCard Sez: 30 Members in Mobile Partner Program

MasterCard has added more than 30 companies to its mobile partner program.

The financial services company chalks up the success to the fact that mobile phones are becoming an indispensable part of consumers' increasingly mobile lives, with a majority seeking to use them for more than just telecommunications. More than 600 million mobile "wallets" are expected to be in use by 2011 and that number is expected to rise to 1.4 billion by 2015, according to Edgar, Dunn and Company.

The MasterCard Mobile Partner Program is a global online resource center designed to foster knowledge-sharing, manage document distribution, track product implementations and evaluate partnership opportunities within the mobile industry.

"Cooperation on the part of technology companies is critical to a robust mobile payments ecosystem, as the trend toward mobility persists on a global scale. We are proud to be at the heart of this ecosystem by facilitating relationships that will continue to advance the growth of mobile payments," said Chief Emerging Technology Officer Art Kranzley, at MasterCard Worldwide. "The MasterCard Mobile Partner Program allows us to promote innovation in the mobile channel by developing tools that enable mobile financial services on a global basis."

Participants include Firethorn, PayPass, NXP Semiconductors (which specializes in near-field communications) and contactless payment company Gemalto.

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