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Partnership designed to drive financial inclusion of women, beginning with Nigerian pilot

To tweet this news, copy and paste: «#MasterCard & @UN_Women partner to financially empower women through ID http://news.mstr.cd/21hGHiy »

Purchase, N.Y. – March 8, 2016 – Around the world, nearly 2.4 billion people live without any form of official personal identification, and the majority of them are women. As part of broader International Women’s Day activities, MasterCard and UN Women  signed a Memorandum of Understanding to address this imbalance and advance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

The first initiative in this relationship is the launch of a pilot in Nigeria, which aims to provide half a million Nigerian women with ID cards enabled with electronic payments functionality.

In Purchase NY, MasterCard’s CFO, Martina Hund-Mejean signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with Lakshmi Puri, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Deputy Executive Director.

In Purchase NY, MasterCard’s CFO, Martina Hund-Mejean signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with Lakshmi Puri, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Deputy Executive Director.

“Research has shown that as soon as a person has a formal identity and access to electronic payments, they can prosper in ways they haven’t imagined before,” said Martina Hund-Mejean, chief financial officer of MasterCard. “Our relationship with UN Women will help make a real difference in these women’s lives as they are more fully empowered to achieve their true potential.”

According to the World Bank, only 47 percent of women worldwide have access to formal financial services, compared to 51 percent of men. In Africa, this number increases to more than 70 percent of women.

“One of UN Women’s main objectives is to increase women’s economic empowerment. The partnership with MasterCard will help pave the way to economic freedom and financial inclusion for women, initially in Nigeria,” says Lakshmi Puri, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Deputy Executive Director. “We look forward to working together and see the potential of expanding the model to benefit women also in other countries. It is also encouraging that we will collaborate on knowledge generation, advocacy and resource mobilization for greater investment in gender equality and women’s empowerment – reflecting MasterCard and its CEO’s deep commitment to a Planet 50/50 and to supporting UNWOMEN’s efforts,” she added.

Under the program, MasterCard and UN Women will further explore how and when Nigerians have signed up for the country’s national identity card program. Based on these insights, a targeted program will be launched to educate women on the benefits of the program and enroll them for the identity card.

“This campaign will help at least half a million women in Nigeria gain access to financial services, many for the first time, and the support they need to enter the country’s formal economy,” says Omokehinde Ojomuyide, vice president and business lead for West Africa at MasterCard.

 

About MasterCard

MasterCard (NSYE: MA), www.mastercard.com is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter: @MasterCardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news.

 

About UN Women

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. For more information, visit www.unwomen.org. UN Women, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, New York. Tel: +1 646 781-4400. Fax: +1 646 781-4496.

 

MasterCard Communications Contacts:

Marisa Grimes – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +1 (914) 2492024

Geraldine Trennery – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +27 76 301 0264

 

UN Women Partnership Contact:

Ravi Karkara – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +1 917 319 0161

Original author: Marisa Grimes

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By Vibhi Kant, Product Manager and Jie Xu, Software Engineer

News Feed is made up of posts from the friends and Pages you’ve connected to. These posts can be status updates, photos, videos, links and now, Facebook Live videos. We rolled out Facebook Live on iOS in December and last week we began rolling it out on Android in the US. Over the last three months Facebook Live video has become more and more popular and more and more people and Pages are creating and watching live videos.

As with any new type of content in News Feed, we are learning what signals help us show you the most relevant Facebook Live videos for you personally. For example, a few years ago when more people began sharing and watching video on Facebook we listened to feedback to learn what signals helped us show people more of the videos they want to see and fewer of the videos they don’t. At first we updated News Feed ranking to take into account how many people watched a video and how long people watched for to help us personalize News Feed based on people’s preference for watching video. Over time we also learned that certain actions people take on a video, such as choosing to turn on sound or making the video full screen, are good signs they wanted to see that video, even if they didn’t choose to like it.

Now that more and more people are watching Live videos, we are considering Live Videos as a new content type – different from normal videos – and learning how to rank them for people in News Feed. As a first step, we are making a small update to News Feed so that Facebook Live videos are more likely to appear higher in News Feed when those videos are actually live, compared to after they are no longer live. People spend more than 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video on average compared to a video that’s no longer live. This is because Facebook Live videos are more interesting in the moment than after the fact.

What does this mean for my Page?
Facebook Live is currently available for verified Pages and public figures using Mentions. We do not expect Pages to see significant changes as a result of this update.

We will continue to learn how people are watching this new content type, and as we improve ranking for Facebook Live videos we’ll continue to post to our News Feed FYI blog.

Famed designer Adam Selman to join panel of judges for the design competition intended to drive the design of next generation payments

To tweet this news, copy and paste http://news.mstr.cd/1oIXTB1 to your Twitter handle with the hashtag #PayInStyle

 NEW YORK, NY —February 29, 2016— The fashion and technology worlds are merging faster than ever before, and MasterCard is teaming up with The New School’s Parsons School of Design to bring a forward-thinking, design-led approach to payments technology. In a Fashion and Design Hack sponsored by the two organizations, teams of students will compete to develop solutions and build prototypes for connected commerce by embedding payments functionality into products, new designs or concepts.

The engagement with Parsons’ design students pushes forward MasterCard’s vision to bring to consumers a new generation of connected commerce experiences. Consumers saw some of the possibilities in the forms of connected key fobs, a payment-enabled dress and other smart accessories late last year when MasterCard introduced its Commerce for Every Device program. The program aims to enable commerce on a wide array of consumer products across automotive, fashion, technology, wearables, and yet to be imagined categories. This gives consumers the freedom to shop using the device or thing that is most convenient to them, with the highest level of security available. With the hack, MasterCard welcomes a new generation that thinks differently about its money to innovate on this theme.

“As the world becomes more and more connected, the way consumers interact and transact is transforming,” said Sherri Haymond, senior vice president, Digital Payments and Labs, MasterCard. “What you buy and how you pay will soon blend seamlessly into your lifestyle as design, usability and technology merge together in new ways. The Fashion and Design Hack with Parsons is another way for us to integrate design-led thinking into payments innovation and tap into the creativity and ingenuity of the school’s design students.”

The teams of three students each were selected through a competitive submission process at Parsons and will compete for $15,000 in prize money and an opportunity to showcase their creations at leading MasterCard industry events. The day-long Fashion and Design Hack will take place at The New School’s University Center, in New York City, on Saturday, March 5, and students from the fashion, industrial design, product design, data visualization, and design and technology programs will participate.

“How people and products interact is changing rapidly,” said Burak Cakmak, dean of Parsons School of Fashion at The New School. “More and more, companies are turning to design to help build a more positive consumer experience. By partnering with Parsons, MasterCard is engaging with our students’ creative and innovative approaches to design viable solutions.”

Following an initial meeting to discuss research and initial concepts, the teams will have just seven hours on the day of challenge to create their prototypes before presenting it to a panel of esteemed judges, including:

Adam Selman, Fashion Designer Barnett Zitron, Managing Director, MADE, a WME I IMG company Burak Cakmak, Dean, School of Fashion, Parsons Sherri Haymond, Senior Vice President, Digital Payments & Labs, MasterCard

“Technology is playing a greater and greater role in all aspects of our lives, including fashion,” said designer Adam Selman. “The connected device revolution won’t necessarily be limited to our wrists. And we need creative minds to push the boundaries of their imagination and develop design concepts that are truly inventive. Through this collaboration the new generation of design students will have the opportunity to bring to life concepts that incorporate cutting-edge design with the latest in payments technology.”

The hack builds on MasterCard’s efforts to find, develop and launch new commerce applications for a generation that thinks differently about money and payments. Aware that new ideas can come from anywhere, MasterCard has founded and supported programs such as Girls4Tech, the company’s education program that showcases our payments technology and engages employees as role models and mentors, and Masters of Code, a hackathon that was developed to challenge developers to create the next big application using MasterCard’s APIs.

About MasterCard

MasterCard, www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard’s products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MasterCardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news.

 About The New School’s Parsons School of Design 

Parsons School of Design is one of the leading institutions for art and design education in the world. Based in New York but active around the world, the school offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the full spectrum of art and design disciplines. Critical thinking and collaboration are at the heart of a Parsons education. Parsons graduates are leaders in their respective fields, with a shared commitment to creatively and critically addressing the complexities of life in the 21st century. For more information, visit Parsons website.

 MEDIA CONTACTS:

MasterCard

Sarah Ely

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(914) 249-6714

 

The New School

Josephine Parr

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(212) 229-5667

Original author: Sarah Ely

Today Mark Zuckerberg hosted an in-person townhall Q&A in Berlin, Germany where he answered questions from people around the world. You can watch the full video of the event below, and download photos at the bottom of this post.

Financial Solutions Lab Opens Applications for $3 Million Year-Two Challenge to Address Financial Shocks, Celebrates First-Year Culmination

Virtual Financial Technology Lab Launched by CFSI and JPMorgan Chase Helps Startups Improve and Scale High-Tech Solutions to Improve Consumers’ Financial Health



SAN FRANCISCO, CA February 12, 2016 — Today the Financial Solutions Lab (FinLab) at the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) with founding partner JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced its $3 million year-two challenge, while celebrating the culmination of its first-year challenge with an inaugural group of nine FinTech innovators. FinLab, a $30 million, five-year virtual lab initiative, unveiled Financial Shocks as the theme for its second-year challenge. More information and images are available at finlab.cfsinnovation.com/Pressroom.aspx

For its second challenge, FinLab announced it is seeking innovators providing solutions that help Americans prepare for -- and weather -- financial shocks. The importance of this new challenge topic was determined using CFSI’s Consumer Financial Health Survey as well as research from other thought leaders, including a Pew Charitable Trusts study that revealed that 60% of Americans experienced a financial shock in the past year, and that only 6 in 10 households had enough liquid savings to cover a $2,000 unexpected expense. A recent study by the JPMorgan Chase Institute estimated that a typical middle-income household needed approximately $4,800 in liquid assets to sustain monthly fluctuations in income and spending, but had only $3,000 available. These financial shocks may cause consumers to draw upon their long-term and retirement savings, sell assets or default on their existing debts. A brief detailing the choice of this challenge topic was released today by CFSI and can be found here: http://bit.ly/ShocksBrief

During the event, Year One FinLab innovators were on hand to talk about the consumer impact of their solutions, their experiences with the lab, and how FinLab is building an ecosystem for FinTech innovators promoting financial health. FinLab’s first challenge, focused on solving consumer cash flow issues, drew nearly 300 applications from companies and nonprofit organizations serving more than 10,000,000 Americans combined.

Since their acceptance into the lab, the nine members of FinLab’s inaugural group have improved their products and scaled their businesses to help more Americans improve their financial health. FinLab provided each member with $250,000 in capital, support from FinLab operating partners IDEO.ORG and ideas42, strategic guidance from its industry-leading advisory council, and resources from founding partners CFSI and JPMorgan Chase. FinLab’s year-one members include Ascend Consumer Finance, Digit, Even, LendStreet, PayGoal by Neighborhood Trust, Prism, Propel, Puddle and SupportPay.

“The lab was instrumental in helping us grow our business and providing the expert insights we needed to expand our solution to more underserved consumers,” said Jimmy Chen, Founder and CEO of Propel. “In fact, the newest iteration of our product was inspired by collaboration we developed through FinLab, and this re-thinking has made our product attractive for Silicon Valley-style investors as a result.”

“FinLab and CFSI have given us an unparalleled opportunity to work with executives from the largest banks in the country, along with government and regulatory bodies,” said Ethan Bloch, CEO of Digit. “This access has been phenomenal as it has allowed Digit to be involved in conversations directly impacting the future of FinTech.”

“The opportunity for technology to create meaningful change in consumers’ financial lives has never been greater,” said Susan Ehrlich, Board Chair of CFSI and FinLab Advisory Council member. “FinLab's first-year challenge harnessed innovation to improve cash flow management for millions of Americans. I am excited to see the lab build on this success. By powering creative ideas with the right people and resources to make them happen, FinLab is a catalyst for producing a more financially healthy America.”

“JPMorgan Chase is proud to play a role in the first-year success of the Financial Solutions Lab and of the groundbreaking contributions made by the FinLab’s first class of entrepreneurs,” said Noah Wintroub, Vice Chairman, J.P. Morgan. “Through technology and innovation, they’re tackling some of the biggest financial issues facing people today. The work of this and future FinLab classes will change the way Americans are managing their finances – allowing them to stabilize their finances, build resiliency and meet their long-term goals.”

Starting today, FinTech innovators interested in joining FinLab’s sophomore year can complete and submit an application at http://finlab.cfsinnovation.com before April 7, 2016. Each application will be closely reviewed by an expert, cross-sector group including strategic partners in human-centered design, behavioral economics, community outreach, and for-profit entreprenuership. Finalists will be invited to pitch their solution to a panel of judges at the EMERGE Forum 2016, held June 15-17 in New Orleans, La.

The announcement was made at a private event in San Francisco, which gathered FinLab staff, members and partners, as well as notable venture capitalists and FinTech industry players.


About the Financial Solutions Lab

The Financial Solutions Lab is a $30 million, five-year initiative managed by the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) with founding partner JPMorgan Chase & Co. to identify, test and expand the availability of promising innovations that help Americans increase savings, improve credit, and build assets. The lab will launch a series of competitions to identify solutions to specific consumer financial challenges. It will provide incentives for entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits to enhance financial products and services that address these challenges and improve consumers’ financial health. For more information, visit http://finlab.cfsinnovation.com.


About the Center for Financial Services Innovation

CFSI is the nation’s authority on consumer financial health. CFSI leads a network of financial services innovators committed to building a more robust financial services marketplace with higher quality products and services. Through its Compass Principles and a lineup of proprietary research, insights and events, CFSI informs, advises, and connects members of its network to seed the innovation that will transform the financial services landscape. For more on CFSI, go to www.cfsinnovation.com and follow on Twitter at @CFSInnovation.


About JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.6 trillion and operations worldwide. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase & Co. serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under its JPMorgan and Chase brands. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.

PURCHASE, N.Y.– MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) today announced that its annual meeting of stockholders will take place at its corporate headquarters on June 28, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. Stockholders as of the record date, close of business on April 29, 2016, will be entitled to vote at the meeting.

About MasterCard Incorporated
MasterCard (NYSE:MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MasterCardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.

MasterCard Incorporated
Investor Relations:
Matt Lanford, 914-249-4565
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or
Media Relations:
Seth Eisen, 914-249-3153
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Original author: Seth Eisen

By: Vadim Lavrusik, Product Manager and Dave Capra, Engineering Manager

Facebook Live enables you to share your experiences and perspectives in real time, with the people who matter to you – whether you’re someone who wants to broadcast to friends and family, or a public figure who wants to connect with fans around the world. Live videos on Facebook are authentic and exciting, and we’re seeing people tuning in and engaging directly with broadcasters in the moment. In fact, we’ve seen that on average people watch a live video more than three times longer when it is live compared to when it is not live.

We know that people on Android love interacting with live videos —more than 50% of people watching live videos are using Android devices. We’re excited to announce that in the next week we are going to start rolling out the ability for people on Android to share live video. We’re starting our Android rollout in the U.S., with more countries coming soon.

Last month, we announced that we planned to start bringing the ability to broadcast live to countries around the world, and now people in more than 30 countries can share live video via iOS. We’ll continue to roll this out to more people as well as Pages in countries around the world in the coming weeks.

To share live video, simply tap “What’s on your mind?” at the top of News Feed and select the Live Video icon. You can write a quick description and select the audience before going live. During your broadcast, you’ll see the number of live viewers, the names of friends who are tuning in, and respond to a real-time stream of comments. When you end your broadcast, it will be saved on your Timeline like any other video, which you can then delete or keep for your friends to watch later.

You can discover live videos from your friends and public figures you follow right in News Feed. While watching a live video, you can tap the Subscribe button to get notified the next time the broadcaster goes live.

Facebook Live is also available to public figures and Pages. Learn more in our Help Center.

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