Asia United Bank (AUB) has partnered with Mastercard to launch the Mocasa Virtual Card for online purchases and payments, it announced on Tuesday, Sept. 5.

The New York-based Mastercard is touted as a global technology player in the payments sector with a network in 210 countries while the two-year old Mocasa is a financial technology or fintech firm in the Philippines.

AUB senior vice president Mags V. Surtida said Mocasa will help financial consumers to “utilize loan funds disbursed to them.”

“Through the Mocasa app, customers can use the loan proceeds to pay utility bills, buy prepaid load, scan, and pay QRPh merchants or use it to shop at Mocasa’s existing merchant tie-ups,” he said.

This was AUB’s objective, it said, to have a virtual card via credit payment platform for online purchases.

Surtida said the collaboration will also allow Mocasa to grow its merchant network faster by having access to the Mastercard virtual card technology.

“We are opening up Mocasa’s customer base to millions of e-commerce merchants who accept Mastercard card payments today. With this offering, Mocasa can purely focus on its core business of client acquisition and lending,” he said.

In the AUB statement, it noted the growing digital economy in the Philippines where e-commerce transactions are projected to increase by 17 percent to $22 billion by 2025.

“The Mocasa Virtual Card is expected to meet the growing demand for a digital payment option that suits the young and digitally native Philippine population, which includes a high proportion of mobile-first customers,” the bank noted.

AUB stated that virtual cards work exactly like a physical bank card except that they are stored in an app on the phone, such as the Mocasa app, instead of a physical wallet.

The bank also stated that cardholders will continue to enjoy benefits similar to a regular card-based transaction, but with enhanced security and convenience.

“Demand for digital payment options is rapidly rising across the world, and consumers are increasingly more digital-first in how they live, work and play. Mastercard is proud to collaborate with AUB and Mocasa to bring the benefits of Mastercard's virtual card technology and acceptance network to millions of users in the Philippines and globally,” according to Simon Calasanz, Mastercard’s Country Manager in the Philippines.

For his part, Mocasa CEO and founder Robin Wong said the virtual Mastercard program “relieves us of the required merchant system integration with each e-commerce merchant just to be able to have our user base transact online."

"At the same time, our customers can also take advantage of local/global online Mastercard promotions without any additional cost to us. More importantly, it provides an additional feature for our customers in our current app,” he added.

AUB is the banking arm of the Ng family that owns Republic Biscuit or Rebisco. The bank has had plenty of digital innovations, among them are e-wallet HelloMoney, payments via QR and national QR PH code, and AUB PayMate.