Mastercard Move Powers Ericsson Global Wallet Expansion

Mobile communications and connectivity company Ericsson launched a money movement partnership with Mastercard, according to a Wednesday (Feb. 18) press release.

The collaboration combines Ericsson’s mobile financial services platform with the Mastercard Move money movement suite to help telecom service providers, banks and FinTechs expand digital wallet capabilities, introduce new payment services, and serve unbanked or underbanked communities.

“This collaboration not only meets the rising demand for digital cross-border payments, but also accelerates progress toward a more connected, inclusive and dynamic global digital economy,” Pratik Khowala, global head of transfer solutions at Mastercard, said in the release.

Pavan Bachwal, Ericsson’s head of mobile financial services, said in the release that the partnership will help “customers to launch secure and efficient payment solutions faster than we ever have before.”

“Together, we are driving financial inclusion, accelerating innovation and creating new growth opportunities across the globe,” he said in the release.

Digital wallets have moved from a payments technology to an infrastructure for financial inclusion in cross-border commerce. The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Global Money Movement: U.S. Edition, found that while most consumers use digital wallets for cross-border transactions, less than half of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) do so.

In other cross-border payments news, companies are rethinking their money movement strategies amid rising volatility.

“For much of the past decade, the debate around cross-border payments followed a familiar script,” PYMNTS reported Tuesday (Feb. 17). “FinTech firms, unburdened by legacy systems, promised faster settlement, lower costs and greater transparency. Banks, weighed down by legacy infrastructure and regulatory caution, appeared destined to cede ground corridor by corridor.”

FinTech companies have transformed cross-border payments by looking at them not as a process but a product. They simplified onboarding, clarified pricing and lowered settlement times by reducing correspondent banking complexity. APIs enabled them to embed payments directly into software platforms, allowing for new use cases and shrinking barriers to entry for small firms.

“Businesses want to reroute payments quickly, add or suspend corridors and respond to regulatory changes without reengineering their systems,” the report said. “FinTech architectures, designed for modularity and rapid deployment, remain well-suited to this environment.”

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