MasterCard and Samsung revealed a new use case for the secure element in Samsung devices on December 11 when it announced that Commonwealth Bank of Australia customers would now able to make payments via an embedded mobile banking service on the phones. To wrap this latest development, what it means for MasterCard and how the program will expand in the coming months, MPD CEO Karen Webster spoke with MasterCard’s Mung Ki Woo to dissect the news.
MasterCard is just one major issuer that views embedded chips in NFC-enabled phones as the key to unlocking mobile payments globally. But, its news yesterday of how it is going to leverage its Samsung partnership puts a bit of a different spin on digital wallets and mobile payments.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) will now offer the embedded payments service to customers that use the Samsung Galaxy S4 and have CBA’s mobile banking app. MasterCard indicated that this development allows these customers to make payments at more than 1.6 million PayPass-enabled merchant locations around the globe.
“Our focus is on helping consumers shop and pay in a way that best fits their needs, across all of their devices,” Mung Ki Woo, group executive of mobile and industry alliances at MasterCard, said in a December 11 statement.
The move is part of MasterCard’s continued relationship with Samsung. Earlier this year, MasterCard teamed with the handset maker to offer exclusive deals and special discounts to Samsung Galaxy S4 users in Bangladesh.
For more on insight how the announcement fits into MasterCard’s strategy in other markets (Jump to 1:48), which countries MasterCard will target next (Jump to 5:31) and what the consumer experience on CBA’s app will now be (Jump to 2:32), listen to Market Platform Dynamics (MPD) CEO Karen Webster’s full interview with Woo here.
*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.
For a video overview of the new service, click here.
Mung Ki Woo, Group Executive Mobile & Industry Alliances, MasterCard
Mung Ki Woo is group executive, Mobile. In this role, he is responsible for leading the development and commercialization of mobile payment product platforms and solutions around the globe that create a sustainable competitive advantage for MasterCard and its customers.
Mr. Woo joined MasterCard in early 2011. Previously, he was vice president, Electronic Payments & Transactions at France Telecom – Orange, one of the largest telecom operators in the world with retail operations in 32 countries. There he led the development of the “Orange Money” mobile payment program, which at the end of 2010 was commercially available in 6 African countries. Mr. Woo was also responsible for commercial deployment of Orange’s mobile contactless services in their major European markets.
Prior to joining FT-Orange, Mr. Woo was chief technical officer of a French interbank organization specialized in electronic money systems. Before that, he managed a consulting practice at a French IT firm (Devoteam). He started his career at Thales working on large defense communication programs for the UK armed forces.
Mr. Woo is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Telecom ParisTech.
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