London, Dec 12 (IANS): Simplifying the way for financial institutions to launch mobile payment services, global IT security firm Gemalto on Tuesday announced that its Trusted Service Hub (TSH) can now offer a single gateway, thus enabling issuers to connect to Mastercard and Visa tokenisation services.

"Our new partnerships with Mastercard and Visa will strengthen these initiatives and give clients faster and more efficient access to a global mobile payment market that is expected to be worth over $3 trillion by 2021," François Chaffard, Senior Vice-President, Digital Payment, Gemalto, said in a statement.

Mastercard and Visa platforms manage tokenisation which converts card's sensitive data into a unique digital identifier (or token) that can be deployed safely on smartphones and similar devices.

"Having Gemalto's support as a partner to expand usage of the Visa Token Service through our 'Visa Ready for Tokenisation' programme will only help to accelerate this new era for businesses and consumers alike," Jack Forestell, Executive Vice President, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, Visa, said in a statement.

The token allows payments to be processed without exposing actual account details that could potentially be compromised.

"Tokenisation is key to ensuring consumers put their trust in new digital payment services and as a gold partner of our 'Mastercard Engage' programme, Gemalto can help our customers digitise their card portfolios faster and deploy their digital solutions," said Kiki Del Valle, Senior Vice President, Commerce for Every Device, Mastercard.

Meanwhile, wallet providers, including original equipment manufacurers (OEMs), retailers, car manufacturers and wearable makers can benefit from the company's offering to launch their own mobile payment wallet while accessing a growing number of issuers.