PayMaya Philippines, Inc., the digital financial services arm of PLDT, Inc.’s Voyager Innovations, has teamed up with McDonald’s to allow the fast-food chain to accept cashless payment through PayMaya in its stores.

With the partnership, 42 McDonald’s restaurants have started accepting card payments for all types of MasterCard and Visa credit, debit, and prepaid cards, including PayMaya Visa cards and Smart MasterCard, PayMaya Philippines President and CEO Orlando B. Vea said in a briefing in Taguig City on Friday.

The company will soon accept PayMaya QR payments in its McCafé BGC Arts Center and McCafé Tagaytay Calamba stores, with more stores accepting QR-based payments in the coming months.

Customers can also book and pay for birthday parties online as well as settle online orders “in the next few weeks.”

“Our goal is to continuously provide our customers with a convenient and feel-good restaurant experience, which is why we are committed in seeking out innovations that can deliver this to them. Through our partnership with PayMaya, our customers will now have a cashless payment option to make ordering their favorite McDonald’s meals more convenient,” McDonald’s President and CEO Kenneth S. Yang was quoted in a statement as saying.

“This is digital technology at its most convenient, and we are working toward enabling more partners like McDonald’s to further build a ‘cashless’ ecosystem,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman at PLDT, Smart, and PayMaya.

“We’re starting with McDonald’s today, but we envision a future where most of our transactions will be carried out with the help of a PayMaya account.”

McDonald’s joins a fast-growing list of companies and merchants that have tapped PayMaya for cashless transactions including e-commerce retailers Lazada and Zalora, Philippine Airlines, and Cebu Pacific, among others.

PayMaya is powering the QR payments acceptance of supermarkets, department stores, and shops under Robinsons Store Specialists, Inc., as well as department stores and mall information booths of SM malls.

With only a third of the country’s population having bank accounts, PayMaya allows the unbanked and those who have no credit cards to settle online transactions. A physical PayMaya prepaid card can also be used in stores worldwide that accept Visa.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.

Shares in PLDT added P19 or 1.36% to close at P1,419 apiece on Friday. — Krista Angela M. Montealegre