With mobile phone payments expected to grow tenfold by 2013, according to the latest Juniper 2008 Mobile Payments Study, MasterCard’s OTA service will allow issuers to move more aggressively into the mobile payments space to capture a share of this transaction volume with reduced up front investment.

“By managing the device personalization process for our customers from beginning to end, we are offering a service that is consistent with both customer demand for ease of implementation and consumer demand for ease of use,” said MasterCard’s Art Kranzley, chief emerging technology officer.

In order for account holders to use their mobile phones to make purchases, they need to have an NFC-enabled mobile phone and a mobile data subscription. First the PayPass application is transferred onto a secure area of the consumer’s mobile phone via the mobile network. Next the PayPass application is personalized with the consumer’s individual payment account details. MasterCard has created a simple way for issuers to enable their account holders to perform this process themselves over-the-air. The service will be made available to consumers through their issuing banks’ Web sites.