News of the partnership was confirmed late Tuesday night, and both companies hope that the alliance will yield innovations by 2023. The aim of the collaboration is to enable businesses to use the latest trends in global payments to turn smartphones into cash registers, and smart watches into payment devices.

“Large retailers can adapt to new trends and develop their own system, but small retailers and small businesses need a solution that is cheap and affordable. This will be made possible by 5G technology,” Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach told CNBC, which broke the news.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg explained that 5G will enable small and medium businesses to handle transactions more quickly and focus their business on their customers. Mastercard and Verizon want to further digitize global consumer spending, which is estimated to be around $50 trillion a year. Miebach believes the SME (small and medium enterprises) sector has the greatest growth potential in the area of ​​5G contactless payments. In fact, he maintains that with new applications and new services, Mastercard and Verizon are building a long-term market that will soon dominate the financial world.