Mastercard today announced a partnership with Fit Pay, Inc. to bring Mastercard contactless payments to consumer wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. By integrating the Fit Pay platform with the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES), the companies will work with Wearatec and other innovative manufacturers to bring to Mastercard cardholders a variety of secure contactless payments-enabled devices.

The Fit Pay platform drastically reduces the time-to-market, cost and complexity of payment and authentication services for wearable device manufacturers. The Fit Pay partnership with Mastercard highlights the growing ecosystem of technology integrators that have joined the Mastercard Commerce for Every Device program. Mastercard has developed partnerships with companies across multiple categories to enable simple and secure payment transactions to fit every consumer lifestyle, enabling them to use the device that is most convenient to them, with the highest level of security.

“We see a tremendous demand for payment capabilities coming from innovative device manufactures who recognise the importance to continually expanding the value proposition of their products,” said Michael Orlando, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fit Pay. “Working alongside Mastercard, Fit Pay’s platform can seamlessly add contactless payment capabilities to wearable devices, increasing consumer engagement, creating new revenue streams, and making their devices indispensable.”

Wearatec produces connected watch clasps to enable smart device capabilities for luxury watches. With Mastercard and Fit Pay, Wearatec will work with its partners, including leather goods designer Jean Rousseau, to bring secure payments to a wide array of men’s and women’s timepieces.

Based on its current relationships with Wearatec and other device manufacturers, Fit Pay expects to payments-enable more than 2.5 million wearable devices in 2017, with the number rising to more than 9 million in 2018.  

The ability to enable all of these devices with payments is an extension of MDES and the Digital Enablement Express (Express) program. Through MDES and Express, any accessory, wearable or device can be payment-enabled to be used at the more than 6 million Mastercard contactless-enabled merchant locations in 77 countries around the globe. Because these device-based transactions are tokenised through MDES, consumers have peace of mind knowing they are protected from fraudulent transactions when using their favorite devices to pay.

“At Mastercard, we are continuously working to enable payments to a whole new generation of devices to give consumers more choice in how they pay,” says Kiki Del Valle, senior vice president, Digital Payments and Labs at Mastercard. “The Commerce for Every Device program puts in place a standard for expanding secure contactless and embedded payment options globally, and our work with Fit Pay and its set of cutting-edge device manufacturers will further help us meet merchant and consumer needs.”

Within the Mastercard booth (3413) at the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas, NV, October 23-26, Mastercard and Fit Pay will demonstrate live retail transactions performed via wearable devices.

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