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"Payment giant MasterCard is flexing its influence to help bring greater certification to the mobile payments space after it announced a list of mobile payment solutions that it says &amp;quot;meet industry standards and\u00A0MasterCard best practices&amp;quot;. The selection includes Square, iZettle, Elavon and 16 others.\r\n\r\nSpurred by the phenomenal adoption of smartphones worldwide, mobile payments have been a hot bed for startups and young companies looking to make transactions and the process of shopping more frictionless for consumers and retailers. With its move to provide a set of trusted solutions, MasterCard is aiming to give a greater degree of clarity and guidance for merchants that are considering the move to accept payments.\r\n\r\nThose companies featured on MasterCard's initial list\u00A0include some verified giants -- Square is valued at $3.25 billion, having raised more than $340 million, and iZettle's total funding is almost at $50 million -- but there's no place for Rocket Internet-backed Payleven, for one. MasterCard encourages absentees from its list\u00A0to\u00A0register and self-certify their solution.\r\n\r\nHere's the full list of 19 companies:\r\nCorduro, Ezetap,\u00A0Elavon, Handpoint, Itos, iVeri, iZettle, JSC Smartfin (2Can), Miura Systems, NetSecure,\u00A0Payments (Kudos), Payworks, ROAM, SCCP (Swiff), Soft Space, Square and Thyron\u00A0Systems.\r\nWhile the list is strictly recommendational, clearly there is much kudos and benefit to being deemed industry standard by a vastly influential payment figure like MasterCard.\r\n\r\nMung Ki Woo, Group Executive of Mobile at MasterCard\u00A0Worldwide, believes that the program will benefit merchants, payment facilitators and shoppers.\r\nThere are millions of mobile POS solutions in-market today. That\u2019s millions of\u00A0merchants who have spoken loud and clear about the benefits of moving from cash\u00A0to electronic payments. Mobile devices are rapidly transforming the point of sale experience, both\u00A0for consumers and merchants, and the growth of this program demonstrates our long-term vision to provide technology and tools that support the transition of every mobile\u00A0phone into a shopping device.\r\nThe exclusion of Germany-headquartered Payleven is interesting, particularly since MasterCard is an investor in its European rival iZettle, which is on the list.\u00A0Alongside SumUp\u00A0-- which is\u00A0another high-profile absentee -- the three startups are the early leaders in Europe's mobile payment race; last year, US giant Square voiced commitment to expanding outside of North America but it is yet to do so.\r\n\r\nSquare has the support of Starbucks -- which invested $25 million in its Series D round and is also a retail partner. Square payments began rolling out at 7,000 Starbucks shops in the US in November.\r\n\r\nHeadline image via 401KCalculator.org"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/27/mastercard-mobile-payment-list/>