MasterCard moves into the e-billing arena
By Louise Naughton
21 June 2011
Uma Thurman dressed in her iconic yellow
jumpsuit it is not, but MasterCard is looking to kill an entirely
different bill in its latest move to displace cash.
MasterCard will look to encourage the payment
of utility bills through its POS network, enable and promote the
use of bill pay by credit or debit card via the internet and link
e-billing to e-invoicing.
Speaking at VRL’s Cards and Payments Europe
2011 conference in Frankfurt, Luke Olbrich, head of debit for
MasterCard Europe, said MasterCard is currently working with bill
aggregating companies to facilitate the use of payment cards to
aggregate bills.
“We didn’t see the [e-billing] area coming but
it is a great opportunity for us,” said Olbrich.
He adds MasterCard has to tweak its business
model to ensure its e-billing offering is competitive.
In the space of a couple of months, MasterCard
will also be launching a card product like no other – bringing
together PayPass technology, a display panel, one-time-password
(OTP) Secure 3D functionality and both credit and debit
functions.
MasterCard will be announcing the launch of
the card with a Belgian bank in the “next couple of months”.