Mastercard has partnered with UAE-based lifestyle banking application Bankiom to issue digital payment cards across UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Following this collaboration, the companies will use their payment solutions to drive digital and financial inclusion across the GCC region.

Bankiom’s digital bank PuraVida will leverage Mastercard’s services, especially its Priceless brand, in order to improve the overall customer experience and meet its clients’ needs, preferences, and demands. Furthermore, both companies will focus on the development of the digitalisation process across the payments industry throughout the area. Mastercard’s recent partnerships and product launches Global technology and payment-processing corporation Mastercard had multiple collaborations and launches in the last couple of months, covering several geographic regions around the world.

In June 2023, the company launched its lifestyle platform priceless.com in Israel for providing the needed access to curated experiences across the country’s popular cultural sites. Princeless.com was designed to bring families and friends together for multisensory experiences that could be found in Israel, built around several universal passions, such as arts, culture, cuisine, music, or sports. After the launch, Mastercard cardholders had exclusive access to immersive, effective, and secure experiences that celebrated the culture and history of Israel, including a tour along the alleys of Jerusalem, a culinary trip on the Hatikva market, as well as other benefits and possibilities.

Earlier in the same month, Mastercard demonstrated the mainstream adoption of digital financial services and products across seven Latin American countries in a new report, `The State of Financial Inclusion post COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean: New Opportunities for the Payments Ecosystem`. The study highlighted the financial inclusion momentum in Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. It also revealed the challenges that remained in the countries and that were still excluded from the financial system.

Mastercard selected five startups for its engagement programme Start Path in June 2023 as well, in order to uncover opportunities and capabilities that addressed the needs of SMEs in their digitalisation process. The startups (Cumplo, DigiAlly, PayGoal, Uome, and Tribe Fintech) joined the Mastercard Start Path Small Business cohort to discover the joint innovation opportunities and to scale solutions that improved the process of driving simple, secure, and seamless digital experiences for SMEs across the globe. The company’s Touch Card product was launched in the same period, and it aimed to facilitate payments for blind and low-vision customers.

Throughout this launch, Mastercard focused on providing its new tool to Australian clients. The design of the new card featured simple notches that were developed to aid visually impaired individuals identify their credit, debit, or prepaid cards. .