Global payment-processing corporation Mastercard has launched a suite of services dedicated to female business owners across Latin America and the Caribbean. The products were designed based on a survey that the company conducted with Kantar in five markets around the region (including Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic), which aimed to focus on the needs and preferences of female entrepreneurs.

The solutions prioritise the women that lead micro, small, or medium businesses while using personal means of payment in order to manage them. It aims to improve the responsiveness of card-issuing banks, so customers won’t have to face multiple unresolved needs that currently are frequent in the region. It also includes access to capital and functions to optimise the company’s operations, as well as addressing specific demands and challenges that might occur, such as health benefits for themselves and their families, continuing their education programs, and mentoring programs.

Female customers will also have the possibility to benefit from access to training sessions that multiple other partners alongside Mastercard designed to improve and enhance their companies’ management and development processes. These include lessons dedicated to multiple areas, such as programs that will provide the needed information to perfect their digital skills or marketing skills. Access to financing services will be given through business credit cards.

Companies through the Easy Saving programme will have specific benefits as well, such as offers for travel and operating expense reimbursements through numerous merchants around the world, or discounts on digital business solutions. Mastercard will provide legal consultancy and health programme that focuses on the needed psychological, nutritional, and medical assistance of customers. The security system will also be integrated, enabling business women and their employees to have insurance against cell phone theft and accidents, as well as access to the Mastercard Trust Center.

This will offer them free cybersecurity education, services, and resources to the SMEs, in order to improve their overall privacy and safety. Mastercard’s partnerships and product launches Mastercard had multiple launches and partnerships in the last couple of months, covering multiple geographies. In April 2023, the company announced the launch of its Cross-Border Services Express, in partnership with Fable FinTech and Payall Payment Systems.

The product aimed to help financial institutions set up international payments for their clients. As customers and SMEs need an improved cross-border payment capability, they look for ways to send money or pay vendors across the globe in a secure and fast manner. The Cross-Border Services Express product focused on delivering a complete digital-first experience and complements Mastercard’s Cross-Border Services offering.

Earlier in the same month, Mastercard collaborated with the surcharging compliance platform CardX to add Click to Pay on Lightbox, its online payment form, in order to expand the product’s reach. Following the announcement, Click to Pay was made available to both existing and new card-not-present merchants on CardX’s platform, and was set to help facilitate an improved checkout experience. US-based payment automation provider Transcard also integrated its SMART Suite embedded payment solution with Mastercard’s Track Business Payment Service in April 2023.

Throughout the deal, Mastercard’s product was enabled to facilitate the exchange of data connected to payments that are made within Transcard’s SMART Suite. .