MasterCard seeks inclusion of 40 mln SMEs

To date, financial inclusion has been predominantly centered on providing the underserved and the unbanked with tools and transaction accounts. This remains a critical need with two billion unbanked people, the majority of whom are women, forced to operate in a cash economy. Since 2013, MasterCard has delivered programs and services to more than 200 million people previously excluded from the financial mainstream. The company is committed to reaching at least 500 million by 2020.

In Rwanda, MasterCard is collaborating with the government to fast-track the country’s move to include 90% of its citizens in the financial mainstream, as set out in its Vision 2020 strategy. In Egypt, MasterCard is helping the government roll out a digital ID programme that links citizens’ national ID to the existing national mobile money platform, allowing 54 million Egyptians to participate in the formal electronic economy through a single, cashless programme. In Bangladesh, bKash, Western Union, BRAC Bank and MasterCard launched an international remittance service that gives bKash’s 22 million registered customers the ability to receive international remittances directly into their bKash mobile wallet.

In the US, the Direct Express programme, a partnership between the US Department of Treasury, Comerica Bank and MasterCard, delivers federal benefit payments electronically and recently launched a mobile app to help people easily access account information. Across five countries, Vodafone, HomeSend and MasterCard expanded the real-time, mobile receipt of remittances by M-Pesa users in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Albania.

However, a number of large scale programmes have seen limited success during the initial phase, as a majority of micro and small merchants – where most of the underserved shop each day – do not accept e-payments. Where this occurs, accounts go unused or, in the case of social disbursement programmes, funds are immediately withdrawn at ATMs.

Earlier in June 2016, MasterCard announced an expanded effort with the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to broaden the use of electronic payments by micro, small and medium enterprises. The “Financing Facility for Acceptance Development” is designed to address specific challenges faced by banks and these businesses, with a focus on Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and parts of Europe.