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Consumer payments

July 15, 2026

 

Ushering in a new era of digital wallet innovation

A more open mobile payment ecosystem will allow banks, fintechs and digital platform-led wallets to innovate and offer new payment services.

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Pablo Fourez profile photo

Pablo Fourez

Chief Digital Officer, Mastercard

Change is coming to the world of digital wallets.

While these wallets went mainstream years ago,  Apple's decision to open device access in more markets is now creating more room for mobile payment choice and innovation.

But this spark of innovation needs help to take hold. Because even as the category has matured, building a digital wallet is still incredibly technically complex.

To help banks, fintechs, merchants and digital platforms take advantage of this more open mobile payments ecosystem, Mastercard today is introducing Mastercard Wallet Services, a set of software tools and services that simplifies the creation of wallet capabilities on both iOS and Android, allowing more companies to quickly add secure, trusted contactless payments into their apps.

New digital wallets could provide more choice for consumers, as companies all over the world will be able to offer new benefits, rewards, discounts, points or features to encourage users to start using their wallets. Those players could also benefit by building stronger connections and engagement with their user bases.

Our teams are already working with several partner banks that are developing new digital wallet features using Mastercard Wallet Services. Consumers may start seeing these new capabilities roll out in select markets by the end of this year.

 

What's changed and what's changing

Since the introduction of Mastercard Digital Enablement Services (MDES) tokenization technology in 2014, Mastercard has partnered with industry titans including Apple, Google, Samsung and many others to enable contactless payments globally at scale. While Android has long supported a range of contactless wallet experiences, such as Samsung Pay, the lack of access to the iPhone's contactless payment hardware meant that developers could not offer consistent payment experiences to users across different operating systems.

That’s meant that over the past decade, banks, fintechs and digital platforms have taken different approaches to digital wallets across iOS and Android.

But in 2024, Apple began opening access to NFC capabilities, which powers its mobile payments. This recent change creates new possibilities for banks to roll out digital wallet features in their mobile banking apps across iOS and Android. That’s why we developed Mastercard Wallet Services to remove the technical complexities involved.

While consumer adoption of alternative wallets will take time, expanded platform access gives banks and fintechs new opportunities to innovate .  Ultimately, consumers could be the biggest winners of these changes, gaining access to a broader range of digital wallet experiences, rewards, value-added services and payment options offered through the apps they already use every day.

 

Details for product managers and developers

 

Mastercard Wallet Services is a complete solution including a Secure Element applet and software developer kits that enable contactless payments for Android and iOS environments. Partners can build contactless capabilities across platforms without managing separate integrations or EMVCo certifications.

 

Mastercard Wallet Services software developer kits are now available globally wherever Mastercard Digital Enablement Services tokenization is enabled, across over 200 countries and territories. On iOS, contactless capabilities are rolling out in markets where Apple has enabled NFC access, including the U.S., U.K., Europe and other key regions.

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