MasterCard Partners with Obopay to Offer Industry-leading Person-to-Person Mobile...

MasterCard Partners with Obopay to Offer Industry-leading Person-to-Person
Mobile Payment Service
MasterCard MoneySend(TM) will be offered to MasterCard issuing banks through
the Obopay mobile payment service

PURCHASE, N.Y., June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MasterCard today
announced an agreement with Obopay, Inc. to offer a fully-integrated on-demand
person-to-person mobile payment service in the United States. The service,
offered via MasterCard MoneySend, will give new and existing MasterCard
issuing customers the ability to provide an innovative mobile payments service
to their MasterCard cardholders on all credit, debit and prepaid
MasterCard-branded products.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061031/MCLOGO )
The announcement of this service comes at a time when consumers are
increasingly seeking to use their mobile phones to streamline and simplify
their day-to-day activities, including banking and payment transactions.
TowerGroup estimates that in the United States, adoption of consumer mobile
banking has quintupled in the past 12 months from 1.1 million active users in
2007 to 5.7 million active users today. As mobile consumers become
increasingly comfortable with converging technologies on their mobile devices,
the opportunity to develop mobile payments systems will continue to grow. The
new Mobile MasterCard MoneySend Person-to-Person service will give
participants the freedom and flexibility to directly, easily and securely send
and receive funds through any registered cardholder's mobile phone. The
service will make mobile money transfer seamless for millions of consumers.
Participants will use mobile numbers to send and receive funds, keeping their
payment account numbers private.
"Our strong partnership with Obopay takes the development of the mobile
person-to-person payments framework to the next level," said Art Kranzley,
Chief Emerging Technology Officer, MasterCard Worldwide. "The power and
breadth of the MasterCard network combined with the account relationships of
MasterCard issuers and Obopay's mobile payment technology enable us to offer
valuable new services for consumers throughout the U.S., allowing consumers to
easily transfer funds to their friends and families. We will launch this new
service with our financial institution customers and Obopay in the near
future."
Kranzley also noted, "The development of this service underscores our
commitment to driving commerce and industry innovation. We will continue to
develop solutions that combine payments and communications onto 'anywhere,'
'anytime' consumer devices that provide a positive business model for all
parties in the mobile payments value chain."
"Obopay is proud to establish this partnership with MasterCard, and we
look forward to developing a service that will build on MasterCard's history
of delivering mobile services to their cardholders" said Obopay President,
U.S.-based Operations, Gregory Holmes. "With more consumers clamoring for
services that fit their mobile lifestyles, we're confident that MasterCard
cardholders will welcome the option of quickly and easily sending money to
other cardholders via mobile phone."
Driving Innovation in the Payments Industry
The U.S. is an important market for MasterCard innovation. The highly
developed marketplace and sophisticated consumer preferences demand the most
advanced payments solutions. MasterCard's focus on products and services that
are directly related to payments, such as MasterCard(R) PayPass(TM) will
propel continued innovation for the industry in the mobile space delivering
value for all parties in the value chain including financial institutions,
operators, merchants and consumers.
With over 28 million MasterCard PayPass cards and devices in use at more
than 109,000 merchant locations worldwide, and multiple in-market mobile
PayPass trials taking place in the U.S. and globally, MasterCard is committed
to delivering fast, convenient and secure transaction experiences for
consumers at the point of interaction.
About MasterCard Worldwide
MasterCard Worldwide advances global commerce by providing a critical
economic link among financial institutions, businesses, cardholders and
merchants worldwide. As a franchisor, processor and advisor, MasterCard
develops and markets payment solutions, processes over 18 billion transactions
each year, and provides industry-leading analysis and consulting services to
financial institution customers and merchants. Through its family of brands,
including MasterCard(R), Maestro(R) and Cirrus(R), MasterCard serves consumers
and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more
information go to www.mastercard.com.
About Obopay
Obopay, Inc. (www.obopay.com) is a pioneering service that lets consumers
and small businesses purchase, pay, and transfer money through any mobile
phone using Obopay's mobile application, text message, mobile Web, widget, or
Obopay.com. As the first U.S. mobile payment service created exclusively for
the mobile phone, only Obopay works on any phone and any carrier to empower
consumers and businesses with the convenience of mobile payments. Obopay is
bringing mobile payments to more consumers through industry-first alliances
and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.
SOURCE MasterCard

Erica Harvill of MasterCard Worldwide, +1-914-249-6848,
Erica_harvill@mastercard.com; or Kaitlin Jaxheimer of Weber Shandwick,
+1-212-445-8261, kjaxheimer@webershandwick.com, for MasterCard Worldwide; or
Erin Mitchell of RLM Public Relations, +1-646-712-3050, erin@RLMpr.com, for
Obopay