Mastercard

Mastercard has partnered with Kenya’s government and several large national banks on the rollout of a chip-and-PIN enabled prepaid card targeting unbanked Kenyan citizens.

Digital goods have long been a staple of e-commerce, but many consumers are still not accustomed to using digital wallets to buy low-ticket items. Mastercard hopes to change that by dangling in-store and online deals this month with a live promotion tied to TV's Grammy Awards.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday ordered Mastercard and the prepaid debit card company UniRush to pay $13 million in restitution and fines for a service breakdown in October 2015 that left thousands of customers without access to their accounts.

The initiative would add payments to the country's national identity system, but the government wants more time to review Mastercard's proposal.

President Donald Trump's plans to deregulate the financial services industry still lack detail, though Mastercard is betting on a more favorable legal environment in the future.

Mastercard said the decision confirms the "legitimacy" and "importance" of interchange in our payment system.

Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga was among the financial services, payment and technology executives to express worry or opposition to President Trump's travel ban for certain Middle Eastern countries.

Atlanta-based software provider Oversight Systems is working with Mastercard on a solution to help federal agencies ensure U.S. government spending on purchasing cards and other expenses are in compliance with policies.

Mastercard has announced a partnership with billionaire investor George Soros to work on a for-profit humanitarian project called Humanity Ventures that could bring aid to migrants and refugees around the world.

Mastercard's deal for a controlling stake in VocaLink represented the largest transaction value in payments in 2016 for an industry that saw an 18% increase in acquisition volume.

Mastercard’s $920 million acquisition of VocaLink hasn’t cleared all the regulatory hurdles yet, but it’s closer to the finish line now that the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said it will consider a strategic solution Mastercard has proposed to offset potential threats to competition.

Mastercard Inc. preyed on more than 46 million unknowing consumers by unfairly charging card fees over a 16-year period, lawyers seeking to bring a 14 billion-pound ($17.2 billion) class-action lawsuit told a London court.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is on the verge of announcing its decision in its regulatory review of Mastercard’s acquisition of VocaLink, the London-based agency said.

Mastercard is launching a mobile payment platform to help farmers be more aware of the needs for produce sales in East Africa, calling it the first use case from technology developed at Mastercard Labs in Nairobi, Kenya, which opened in 2014.

Montreal-based Acceo Solutions Inc. and Mastercard have formed a new partnership to expand Acceo’s in-store payment offering for global e-commerce merchants.

Kasisto, a provider of chatbots to banks, announced Thursday a $9.2 million Series A funding round led by Propel Venture Partners with participation from Mastercard and Commerce Ventures.

Payment companies' efforts to modernize by connecting systems through partnerships and acquisition has invariably caused a chain reaction of competitive issues in the eyes of regulators.

When Diebold wrapped up its $1.8 billion Wincor Nixdorf acquisition last August, there was one asterisk on the deal: The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)—which this week threw a flag on Mastercard’s proposed acquisition of VocaLink—wanted to explore whether the ATM network giants’ merger stifled local competition.

Mastercard's $900 million acquisition of British payment company VocaLink is under fire, as the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority contends the deal will give the card network an unfair advantage in ATM-related negotiations.

Malaysia-based CIMB has launched a digital wallet through an integration with Mastercard’s Digital Enablement Service that supports mobile payments on Android handsets.