LIVE FROM GSMA NFC & MOBILE MONEY SUMMIT 2012 Presentations by MasterCard and Globe Telecom, the mobile operator from the Philippines, at the day’s final keynote reflected the need to be ubiquitous in the mobile money market.

Andrea Scerch, division president, central Europe, MasterCard, said there was a growing convergence of the online and offline worlds. The credit card giant breaks its emerging payments business into three sectors: NFC contactless in wealthier markets, e-commerce for the internet and P2P mobile money in the developing world.

“Our strongest competitor is cash. It’s not winning market share here and there….We want to give customers an easier and safer way to pay than cash, that’s our goal," said Scerch.

Meanwhile Globe Telecom, which has been in the mobile money market for several years, has a range of initiatives from delivering payments on behalf of the Philippines government to poor families to tie-ups with Amex and Starbucks which target the country’s more affluent consumers.

Paolo Baltao, president of the operator’s G-Xchange unit, gave a piece of advice: follow where consumers make payments, covering everything from retail to utiity bills. “Selfish as it sounds, I try to make a buck whenever money is transferred.”