Grab, Mastercard partner for cashless transactions in SE Asia

MANILA, Philippines — Southeast Asia-based Grab has partnered with Mastercard for the integration of Mastercard’s prepaid card service with GrabPay, in a bid to reach the region’s 400 million unbanked population.

The new prepaid card service will allow millions of customers to pay cashless and collect rewards points with merchants globally for the first time, using the GrabPay feature of the Grab app.

“Customers can top up their card in cash to spend at any merchant around the world, online or offline, accepting Mastercard,” Grab said.

Under the new service, Grab will issue both virtual and physical cards.The virtual card can be found in the GrabPay wallet of the app, while physical cards will be offered enabled by both NFC and EMV chip technology.

“Topping up the card will be as easy as handing cash to any of Grab’s eight million ‘micro-entrepreneurs’, the drivers, agents and merchants on the GrabPay platform. These micro-entrepreneurs will effectively serve as ‘mobile ATMs’ and benefit from the additional cash flow top-ups offer them,” Grab said.

Grab said the virtual card is also ideally suited as a prepaid travel card, with acceptance at any Mastercard merchant with an NFC-enabled POS terminal across the world.

“Users will benefit from being able to top up different currencies on their card and save on exorbitant transaction and exchange fees,” Grab said.

It added that the physical card will be perfectly suited for customers transacting in areas where connectivity is poor and for use in transit payments, such as metro fares or road tolls.

Grab and Mastercard expect to offer the card in the first half of 2019, starting in Singapore and the Philippines, representing some of the most banked (98 percent) and the least banked (34 percent) countries in Southeast Asia, respectively.

“This partnership goes beyond Grab issuing prepaid cards and is a game-changer for Southeast Asia,” Grab Financial senior managing director Reuben Lai said.

“We are the first e-wallet at scale from our region to be accepted worldwide. Not only does this solidify Grab’s position as Southeast Asia’s undisputed fintech leader, but it also enables the region’s 400 million unbanked and underserved consumers to buy goods and services online. Something that was previously limited to the less than 10 percent of Southeast Asians with a credit card,” Lai added.

For her part, Mastercard Asia Pacific EVP for digital and emerging partnerships and new payment flows Rama Sridhar said the partnership with Grab helps Mastercard widen its reach in Southeast Asia.

“This partnership with Grab significantly advances our reach in Southeast Asia and aligns with our goal of expanding digital payments across all consumers and merchants. Without changing infrastructure, we can now offer merchants the opportunity to tap into Grab’s user base of emerging middle class consumers, covering one in six mobile phones in Southeast Asia. We are thrilled to continue to offer consumers and merchants greater payments choice and the ability to transact securely and effortlessly,” Sridhar said.