THE WHAT? Mastercard and L’Oréal have partnered to introduce the L’Oréal Mastercard BusinessCard, a financial product aimed at bringing salon owners, stylists, and beauty entrepreneurs in Latin America into the digital economy.
THE DETAILS Launched initially in Mexico through issuer Clara, the L’Oréal Mastercard BusinessCard is positioned as the first credit card in the region tailored specifically to the beauty sector. It targets salon operators, independent professionals, creators, and distributors within L’Oréal’s network, with expansion planned across additional markets in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region.
The initiative is designed to address entrenched cash dependency across beauty services in LAC, where an estimated 350,000 salons operate and 90% of B2B payments are still processed through cash, cheques, or transfers. Mastercard and L’Oréal frame the card as a structural solution to payment friction, limited credit access, and operational inefficiencies across small and micro-enterprises.
Further rollout will rely on additional financial partners as digitisation efforts extend to other LAC markets.
THE WHY? The partnership responds to persistent financial inclusion challenges within the region’s fragmented beauty services sector, aiming to formalise transactions, reduce fraud exposure, and create credit pathways for small operators.
Source: Mastercard
