City Possible: Mastercard Launches Global Network for Urban Co-Development in collaboration with IDEMIA among other companies

As urban leaders from around the world gather for Smart City Expo World Congress this week in Barcelona, Mastercard – supported by IDEMIA – is launching a unique global network for urban co-development. As part of its City Possible program, Mastercard is connecting cities with academia and businesses to identify common challenges that can be best addressed through collaboration.

Sixteen cities to date are becoming founding members of the global City Possible network – representing a diverse mix of geography and size.

To meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015, “making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, together with the United Nations Global Compact Cities Program, participating cities can access the City Possible network to identify shared challenges and seek sustainable business models to address them. Once key challenges that are shared by cities across the globe have been identified, City Possible will provide a framework for co-creating, testing and scaling solutions – connecting cities with private sector players that are equally committed to people-centered design. By closely collaborating with companies such as IDEMIA (but also Microsoft or HERE Technologies), Mastercard works to address urban challenges in a more holistic way.

As the global leader in Augmented Identity, IDEMIA has the ambition to provide a secure environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities such as pay, connect, travel and vote in the physical as well as digital space. We look forward to building on our long-standing relationship with Mastercard in order to shape future banking and payment experiences in an increasingly urbanized world.
Nathalie Oestmann, SVP Global Innovation Strategy for Financial Institutions activities at IDEMIA

The superpower of cities is their freedom to collaborate – allowing them to build on each other’s progress. By bringing together city leaders from across the globe, City Possible promotes the sharing of ideas and best practices – aimed at advancing more connected and inclusive urban communities. What unites all our public, private and academic partners is their commitment to make technology work for all people, and finding scalable solutions for universal needs.
Miguel Gamiño, who heads up global city partnerships for Mastercard

From November 13 – 15, Mastercard will be participating in Smart City Expo World Congress, an annual global gathering of urban and business leaders. At the event, Mastercard invites delegates to experience City Possible through a series of talks and demos. Megan Heinze, Head of Financial Institutions, IDEMIA North America, will join the panel “Realizing City Possible” with Miguel Gamino on Wednesday, November 14th.