A recent memorandum of understanding (MOU) between payments industry giant Mastercard and online payment gateway First Atlantic Commerce (FAC) seeks to advance financial inclusion while promoting safer digital payments across Central America and the Caribbean.

The partnership, which aims to take advantage of Mastercard’s network, expertise, and technology as well as FAC’s payment processing and risk management solutions, promises to create a simple, safe, intuitive, and frictionless payment experience for all users.

“Partnering with one of the industry’s most innovative technology companies opens up incredible opportunities to drive the Caribbean and Central America’s digital economy as it also realises the region’s bright future in digital transformation,” said Christopher Burns, CEO of FAC.

“We are inspired by the possibilities of this partnership and excited to work with Mastercard to advance financial inclusion across our markets,” he continued.

FAC, a Bermuda-based financial institution which also operates as a fraud management solutions provider, is an industry leader which has since 1998 been offering robust Internet payment solutions for merchants as it acquires banks in Central America and the Caribbean. In its wide array of services the entity offers a number of solutions across multi-currency, real-time credit card and debit card processing, as well as online consumer authentication and other fraud management services including AVS-only, CVV, 3-D Secure 2 and Kount’s fraud control system. All of which it delivers across multiple jurisdictions across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region.

Through the recent collaboration, FAC is to promote the implementation of innovative digital acceptance solutions such as ‘tap on phone’ and ‘click to pay’, enabling businesses and customers to make and receive payments in much faster and more secure ways. Additionally, the online payment solutions provider will also foster the launch and usage of Mastercard’s tokenisation services. With these it hopes to protect each transaction as it improves the customer experience and strengthen users’ confidence in digital payment methods.

Cluster lead for Mastercard Caribbean, Mayra Vivacqua, in commenting on the partnership, said that the global payments and technology company is thrilled and looks forward to working with the FAC team, as together they drive the region’s digital transformation.

“We want to offer our customers across various sectors, including SMEs, government, and commercial enterprises, a safer, easier, and more convenient way of making transactions. Our goal is to bring about an inclusive and innovative digital economy that works for everyone, everywhere,” she stated.

Germán Roson, cluster lead for Central America and the Dominican Republic at Mastercard, in pointing to his organisation’s shared vision with FAC, further said that the end goal of both entities is to empower the unbanked and underserved populations, equipping them with innovative technological solutions.

“By connecting them to the digital economy, we aim to provide them with opportunities to improve their living standards and to reach their fullest potential,” he said.

Mastercard, at its just concluded 12th edition of the LAC Innovation Forum held in Miami, Florida, brought attendees up to speed on a number of the cutting-edge solutions on which they have been working on as they move to develop and bring to market smarter, more inclusive and sustainable digital payment solutions. With the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI), president for the LAC region Andrea Scerch said the need for these tools have become increasingly important.

“We want to create solutions that offer our consumers more choice, enabling them to make payments in any way they see fit,” executive vice-president of market development for Mastercard LAC Kiki Del Valle said during a presentation at the conference last week.