Mastercard today announced the expansion of its City Possible™ network and capabilities, whose unique solutions now reach over 500 communities in over 50 countries worldwide. The partnership framework focuses on building more inclusive and sustainable cities by increasing access to city services, expanding urban mobility solutions, and informing an inclusive recovery through data driven insights.
Since debuting with just 16 founding members in November 2018, City Possible has now expanded to 220 city members and candidate cities. City Possible welcomed Los Angeles, New York City, London, and Hamilton, CAN to the growing community, with an additional 320 cities leveraging best in class transit solutions. The network also welcomed Digital Main Street, a Canadian organization that partners with over 500 cities across Canada to help main street small businesses in those communities achieve digital transformation.
City Insights: A marketplace for cities and partners
The network will feature a reimagined digital marketplace that provides access to different tools and partner solutions in a unique new store-like experience. These data-driven insights tools were designed for cities with input from cities, partners and Mastercard data scientists. A new feature is specific sentiment analysis data provided by ZenCity, a City Possible partner and graduate of Mastercard’s Start Path program. Access to data driven insights has proven critical for informing response to the pandemic, with our data tools currently supporting over 50 state and local governments through Mastercard’s Recovery Insights initiative.
“COVID-19 has accelerated the demand for an enhanced digital experience that would provide network members access to multiple data sources, insights services, and tools,” commented Miguel Gamiño, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Cities at Mastercard. “As we continue to grow our network, we will continue to scale our capabilities, leveraging the insights from city leaders to build solutions that enable them to better serve their communities in an inclusive way.”
City Key: Expanding Access to City Services
Originally launched in 2019, Mastercard City Key™ is now live in over 25 communities. This solution allows each municipality to combine identification, access to city services and payment functionalities into one tool. As a result, residents can have one digital solution to pay bills, access city services and pay for public transit.
Recent deployments include:
- In Honolulu (USA), Mastercard is helping the City disburse COVID-19 financial relief to 13,000 residents in need and will collaborate to increase functionality over the coming months in partnership with MoCaFi.
- In Los Angeles (USA), Mastercard also partnered with MoCaFi to expand the functionalities of the Angeleno Card, a program which leverages City Key and which has initially distributed more than $36 million to help over 100,000 L.A. residents hardest hit by the pandemic. The platform will evolve to eventually be used to streamline utility payments, build credit, and digitize additional city services.
- In Kolin (Czech Republic), a unique partnership between the city government and a local school helped students access services such as public transportation, library services, and other resources with one card that increased convenience, safety and efficiency to the school’s ecosystem. In 2020, the program has expanded to all schools in Kolin city.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with City Possible and city leaders in the network to expand the functionalities of City Key,” said Wole Coaxum, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mobility Capital Finance. “It’s an innovative way of turning financial services into infrastructure for cities. City Key makes financial services a part of the “plumbing” that drives efficiency, drives safety, drives security, and drives inclusion.”
Mastercard plans to further evolve the initiative beyond the City Possible network by providing “converged card” solutions to state departments of motor vehicles in the United States in partnership with IDEMIA. IDEMIA’s Converged Card solution combines a state-issued driver’s license or ID with a payment card and drives financial inclusion for un and underbanked communities.
Transit Partner Program & Integrated Mobility: Keeping Cities Moving for Everyone
Leveraging the Transit Partner Program, Mastercard has expanded best in class transit solutions to over 330 cities worldwide by working with transit operators, service providers and technology partners across the globe to expedite and scale solutions faster than ever before.
As cities evolve public transit systems due to ongoing health concerns, Mastercard continues to develop digital solutions focused on meeting the increased demand for contactless payments, mobile ticketing and integrated transit apps, allowing cities to gain insight into ridership and utilization which helps with managing demand. In Sydney, Mastercard recently announced the expansion of their partnership with Transport for New South Wales to pilot a digitized Opal Card, enabling a seamless payment experience across modes of transportation.
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