MasterCard International today announced that Citigroup's e-Citi unit, a global leader in electronic financial services and e-commerce, will join MasterCard's Global Mobile Commerce Forum, an open, cross-industry initiative focusing on the development of secure mobile payments over a variety of technology platforms.
The Forum, which now has more than 200 participants, was established last November to foster knowledge exchange between MasterCard's and Europay International's member financial institutions, network operators and leading mobile technology companies.
"Accelerating and facilitating the development of secure mobile commerce is a top priority for Citigroup," said Alan Young, vice-president of e-Citi's Access Devices Group. "Our goal is to empower customers with transactional capabilities anywhere, anytime, on any device - and we need one global open standard to do that. Our membership in MasterCard's Global Mobile Commerce Forum, which brings together leading financial and technology players, will help us achieve these goals."
MasterCard's latest Mobile Commerce Forum meeting was co-hosted by MasterCard's strategic alliance partner, Europay International, and was held in March in Genval, Belgium and attracted more than 150 participants from around the world. A variety of mobile commerce solutions were discussed, ranging from "dual slot" approaches with a separate bank payment chip (either on a plastic card or as another SIM card) to remote wallet solutions. In addition, MasterCard's alliance partners, Oberthur Card Systems, Sonera SmartTrust and 724 Solutions described their recent developments in open wireless standards.
The MasterCard Global Mobile Commerce Forum meets quarterly to develop solutions to facilitate online payments capabilities through mobile devices, making them secure, consistent and globally interoperable. The group estimates that by 2001, 50 million consumers will own a commerce-capable wireless phone.
"MasterCard is moving at Internet speed to help our member financial institutions capitalize on major e-business trends. There is a significant opportunity to expand the number of locations where Citibank cardholders can conduct transactions by providing them the ability to do so on mobile phones," stated Chris Jarman, senior vice president, Mobile Commerce, MasterCard International.
"Our strategic alliance with MasterCard has provided us with an unmatched ability to exchange information with key customers and business partners," stated Greg Wolfond, chief executive officer, 724 Solutions. "We're excited that Citigroup, one of our largest customers has now joined MasterCard's Global Mobile Commerce Forum and will benefit, as we have, from the vast information and technological innovations in development."
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