Ericsson and Mastercard have partnered to expand digital money movement services, starting with a rollout in the Middle East and Africa, as both companies target growth in mobile wallets, cross-border payments and financial inclusion.
The collaboration will see Ericsson integrate its Fintech Platform, which supports mobile financial services, with Mastercard Move, Mastercard’s global portfolio of money transfer solutions. The tie-up is designed to help telecom operators, banks and fintech firms expand digital wallet capabilities and introduce new payment services, particularly in markets with large unbanked and underbanked populations.
Under the agreement, Ericsson’s cloud-native fintech infrastructure and pre-integrated application programming interfaces (APIs) will connect directly with Mastercard Move, which enables money transfers across more than 200 countries and territories and supports transactions in 150 currencies. Mastercard Move connects over 17 billion endpoints globally.
The companies said the integration is intended to reduce technical complexity, simplify compliance and speed up time to market for new services. By lowering integration and operational barriers, they aim to enable service providers to scale digital payment offerings more quickly.
Ericsson’s fintech platform currently operates in 22 countries and serves more than 120 million active users. It processes over 4 billion transactions each month across services including digital wallets, remittances, lending and loyalty programmes.
The initial rollout will focus on the Middle East and Africa, where mobile money usage and remittance flows are expanding rapidly and demand for interoperable payment systems remains strong.
Pratik Khowala, global head of transfer solutions at Mastercard, said: “Mastercard Move empowers payment service providers to shape the future of money movement – delivering fast, secure and transparent transfers for individuals and businesses worldwide. By integrating with Ericsson’s fintech platform, we’re opening new pathways for telecom operators, financial institutions and fintechs to scale innovative payment services, reach underserved communities and unlock fresh revenue streams.”
Pavan Bachwal, head of mobile financial services at Ericsson, said: “Joining forces with Mastercard marks a bold step toward the future of money movement. Combining Ericsson’s trusted, scalable platform with Mastercard Move enables our customers to launch secure and efficient payment solutions faster than we ever have before.”
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