MasterCard International has announced an alliance with Toronto’s CertaPay to promote the adoption of person-to-person payments.

Under the agreement, CertaPay is offering a platform that facilitates payment between MasterCard cardholders. To take advantage of this emerging market, MasterCard recently introduced support for a new payment transaction in its authorization and clearing systems to enable its members to clearly identify P-to-P transactions, which had not been possible prior to April 2001.

Through this alliance with CertaPay, MasterCard’s members may implement the P-to-P offering, designed to support MasterCard payment cards and to integrate with a financial institution’s online banking infrastructure. The platform leverages the financial institution’s own security and brand strategies.

CertaPay’s P-to-P e-mail Money Transfer application enables consumers to send and receive money — in real time, using only an e-mail address — from their own financial institution’s online banking or online account management services.

MasterCard members that install the CertaPay platform can offer their customers the ability to use their MasterCard credit or debit account to pay another person through their participating financial institution.

Consumers will not have to reveal their account information to the other party while conducting the P-to-P transaction and no money will be transferred through the e-mail notification system.