Mastercard has launched Wallet Pay, a global portfolio supporting interoperability among digital wallet providers, including Alipay+.
According to Mastercard, digital wallets have expanded into multi-service platforms now used by over 4.3 billion people worldwide, with global usage expected to surpass 6 billion by 2030. Wallet Pay is positioned to support this growth by enabling wallet providers to extend cross-border transfers, everyday spending, and other payment use cases.
Several digital payment service providers are working with Mastercard Wallet Pay, including Alipay+, the global wallet gateway of Ant International that supports partner wallets such as AlipayHK, Clip, GCash, KakaoPay, TNG eWallet, and TrueMoney. Additional participants include Axian, CRED, DaviPlata, Mercado Pago, MTN, and TenPay Global. Mastercard states that these partnerships extend access to acceptance locations and digital access points worldwide. Alipay+ itself connects more than 50 e-wallets and banking applications, alongside over 10 national payment schemes globally, and is facilitating connections between its wallet partners and Mastercard Wallet Pay.
Portfolio capabilities
Wallet Pay is built on cloud-based payment technology and Mastercard's global acceptance network, allowing wallet providers to introduce new use cases without significant changes to existing infrastructure. The portfolio includes five components:
- interoperability between wallets across borders, platforms, and payment types.
- secure issuing that allows providers to launch their own credit, debit, or prepaid card programmes.
- unified digital and ecommerce acceptance, connecting more than 3.7 billion Mastercard credentials to digital wallets.
- accelerated money movement between cards, wallets, and accounts across more than 200 countries and territories and 150 currencies.
- expanded access to financial tools for underbanked and unbanked consumers in emerging regions.
Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, described wallets as gateways to the digital economy and said Wallet Pay solutions are intended to support the interoperability and user experience of payment providers' services. Joyce Bo, executive vice president, Core Payments, Asia Pacific at Mastercard, noted that after an initial phase focused on wallet adoption, the current phase centres on interoperability at scale, with providers seeking to extend reach across merchants, use cases, and borders without independently building the underlying connectivity.
Context within Mastercard's inclusion strategy
Mastercard positions Wallet Pay as an extension of its existing work on financial inclusion, referencing the recently announced Global Financial Health Coalition, which brings together digital wallet providers with the stated aim of narrowing the gap between financial access and financial health.
The launch reflects broader industry movement toward wallet interoperability, as digital wallets in various markets have historically operated within closed or regionally limited networks. Through the process of connecting multiple wallet providers to a shared acceptance and issuing infrastructure, Mastercard aims to reduce the technical burden on individual providers seeking cross-border or multi-channel functionality.
