Mexican mobile-point-of-sale service Sr. Pago today announced the launch of the Sr. Pago Card System, which it said is "the first service in the Americas" to combine a smartphone chip credit card reader with a debit card that can be reloaded with payments accepted through the card reader.

Provided in conjunction with MasterCard and Te Creemos, the Sr. Pago Card System is aimed at individuals and small businesses in Mexico that have been underserved by existing banking services, the company said.

“In Mexico as well as numerous other countries, an informal cash-based financial ecosystem comprises much of the national economy,” Sr. Pago CEO Pablo González Vargas said in the announcement. “For a variety of reasons, people are either forced or choose to be ‘unbanked.’ At Sr. Pago, we are addressing this market and empowering individuals and small businesses to have banking related services without having a bank account.”

The Sr. Pago payment system provides a secure, chip-based debit card, a chip card reader that connects to any smartphone or tablet, and an app for managing transactions. The combination is intended to enable individuals and small businesses to accept credit card payment for the services they provide, transfer that money to a MasterCard debit card, and then make purchases with the card at MasterCard’s worldwide acceptance. The card reader will process both traditional magnetic strip cards as well as secure chip-based cards, the company said.

“The significant growth of smartphone penetration throughout the world, the inaccessibility of banking services in emerging markets and the increasing use of debit cards make the Sr. Pago Card combo a great opportunity for micro merchants and independent professionals,” said Guillermo Escobar, vice-president of acceptance and acquirer Relations of MasterCard Mexico and Central America. “We’re pleased to know that Sr. Pago is bringing banking services to the underserved, and we look forward to extending this service to other countries after this initial launch.”

“While the Sr. Pago card is available to consumers and small businesses in Mexico with traditional bank accounts, we see the greatest opportunity for impacting the underserved population in Mexico,” the company's COO and CTO, Antonio Flores Aldama, said in the announcement. “This segment comprises approximately 61 percent of the population (more than 73 million people) whose payment and spending transactions are mostly cash based.” 

The Sr. Pago Card will be offered at Best Buy and other large retailers throughout Mexico as well as online via the Sr. Pago website. It will have an approximate cost of $50 (USD) and include transaction fees comparable with other mPOS services, the company said.