The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

MASTERCARD wants to introduce its payment technology in the Family Islands via partnerships with Bahamian credit unions, its executives said yesterday, targeting unbanked and under-served communities.

Juan Zavala Aleman, MasterCard’s manager of account management, confirmed it is meeting with the heads of local credit unions at this week’s World Credit Union Conference (WCUC) at Atlantis to discuss the opportunity.

“In the Bahamas today we don’t work with any credit unions. As part of the plan we have, we have a key player in Fidelity Bank, where we are trying to develop the aggregator model,” he said.

“We will have Fidelity sponsoring the credit unions with our products so they can issue those products. We know that credit unions issue a debit card, and we see potential on the credit side and I’m meeting with some of the CEOs to discuss that.”

Marcus Carmo, MasterCard’s director of communications, said of the aggregator model: “As an international franchise MasterCard has a lot of standards and rules, and we need to abide with anti-money laundering and payment card industry compliance.

“Sometimes for a small player is not that easy to comply with all those things. They need to comply but sometimes it’s expensive to have them preparing everything. With the aggregator model it becomes easier for them to go through the right process. We streamline it and it’s less costly. That’s why this model is so important.”

Mr Aleman added: “It’s a faster time to market. The aggregator is already in place working with MasterCard, complying with everything we have, and it’s just like kind of a plug-and-play for the credit union. They are lacking expertise and don’t have the operational infrastructure to operate on their own. A part of what we want to push is we want to work with the credit unions on the Family Islands.”

He pointed to efforts already under way to reach the unbanked, particularly in the Family Islands. NZIA Ltd has already been selected as the preferred technology solutions provider for the digital Bahamian dollar’s creation, and roll-out, in early March this year. The company has signed a contract with the Central Bank, and a pilot project will be launched on Exuma.

“We know in The Bahamas the situation with the Family Islands is a challenge, especially accessing financial services. We have seen that credit unions are always that first door people go in. Credit unions are at the core of what we want to partner with,” said Mr Aleman.