As digitization continues to evolve in the financial industry in the Middle East and Africa region (MEA), global conglomerates are partnering with local companies to capitalize on the booming market. Mastercard, the global paytech, is no exception, as it concludes a busy month of announcing new partnerships.
MasterCard, One Global, and i2c have announced a partnership to provide tailored financial solutions that will enable the issuance of digital mobile wallets in the region. Through this partnership, banks, Fintech, merchants, and wallet providers can now offer consumers in the region easy access to cutting-edge, digital-first payment solutions and services.
Amnah Ajmal, executive vice president, market development, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (MEA) at Mastercard said: “Following the successful adoption of Mastercard Digital First solutions by many leading banks, we have introduced approaches that simplify integration for innovators like Fintechs, merchants and neo banks. Making this possible are programs like Mastercard Fintech Express, through which we enable the ecosystem to partner more effectively. This announcement is an excellent example of collaboration to solve for speed, service, and scale while accelerating financial inclusion and innovation in the region.”
By working in partnership with Mastercard and i2c, One Global is fixing a process that is often siloed, time-consuming, and limiting innovation. Mohammed Al Rashidi, founder and executive chairman of One Global said, “This collaboration reduces integration time significantly and makes the engagement process simpler for payment innovators. Today, they must search for a BIN Sponsor, an issuer-processor, a network partner, and much more. We bring this engagement into a single window with three interventions.
“The One Global Og Stack enables banking-as-a-service for startups, Fintechs, mega merchants, and banks. As a principal Mastercard license holder in Bahrain, One Global offers its own BIN sponsorship capabilities. Through our partnership with i2c, we take care of various possible issuing processing needs. Together, we are well placed to meet rising consumer demands,” Al Rashidi continued.
The One Global Og Stack is the world’s first digital transformation and innovation-driven platform that enables new ideas to reach global markets and brings them together with incubators, investors, venture capitalists, and various business clients with a single integrated SDK that connects both startups’ innovations and Enterprises’ Omni channels.
Kevin Fox, global head of sales of i2c Inc., said, “i2c’s tech stack is an agile offering that enables various use cases from commercial to personal, from end-to-end, including digital-first payment methods such as contactless payments. We recognize the intrinsic benefits of partnering with mobile channel technology partners and networks. The market has a specific need for this kind of offering, and the demand is very visible. Fintech companies are facing challenges when it comes to engaging the ecosystem needed to launch their digital banking services, so this alliance will offer a quick, sustainable, and resilient resolution to those challenges.”
Mastercard’s Economic Outlook 2022 estimated that 20% of the digital shift in retail would stay put. Furthermore, recent studies from Mastercard showed that 61 percent of MENA consumers say they would avoid businesses that do not accept electronic payments of any kind.
Mastercard, along with its fintech partners, continues to support the digital payments and virtual banking ecosystems across the region. This is part of Mastercard’s broader multi-rail strategy to support payment innovation in the region across all digital payment rails, enabling people and organizations to send and receive money how, where, and when they choose, across both card and account-to-account payments rails.
