TNW: MasterCard Partners With India’s Beam To Offer Prepaid Cards

MasterCard has announced a cooperation with Indian mobile wallet provider Beam to offer pre-paid cards to the service’s 14 million customers and help reach the nation’s many “underbanked” citizens.

Beam is off to a strong start in India with its mobile payment solution, and its new partnership with MasterCard should give it more momentum. The companies plan to release the new mobile pre-paid cards in July and August.

The company estimates that 40% of India’s adult population doesn’t have access to banking services of any kind, let alone credit or debit cards. However, reports suggest the country may have as many as 850 million mobile subscribers.

“Our collaboration with MasterCard Worldwide’s pre-paid card system enables us to offer our customers a unique product that fits their lifestyle and provides access to ATMs and card-transactions at merchants, further extending the reach of our Mobile Wallet to a wide range of cashless solutions and our endeavor to make Beam an aspired brand,” Beam Chairman Anand Srivastava said in a statement.

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