US-based MasterCard has entered into a partnership with Carrefour, a French retailer, to launch the Pass MasterCard card.
The new card will be rolled out in France from February 11, 2009 by Carrefour’s financial services subsidiary, Societe des Paiements Pass.
As a MasterCard card offering international acceptance, the card can be used in over 28 million points of sale across the world and includes all MasterCard insurance and assistance guarantees.
Gauthier Delbecque, general manager of financial services at Carrefour, said: We believe the Pass MasterCard card, an innovative card with improved consumer benefits, will help not only to build customer loyalty, but also attract and retain new cardholders to our network.
Emmanuel Petit, president and general manager of MasterCard for France, said: Throughout the development of this programme we have tried to rise to the very specific retail challenges of Carrefour and refine for their customers in France the best technologies and services available. Our experience elsewhere in the world has helped towards this but only with the support of our teams’ full understanding of the French retail market.
As quoted in AllPayNews, Alfredo Gangotena, General Manager Continental Europe at MasterCard Europe, said: This programme is testament to the partnership that we’ve enjoyed with Carrefour. It demonstrates their willingness to drive into the French market the very ‘best-in-class’ card technology and services for today’s French consumers. This, I believe, will serve them well not only as a stakeholder in the fast paced evolution of the French banking card industry but more widely in the development of the single payment area in Europe.
