MasterCard is leveraging its expertise and technology, and perhaps most importantly, its trust, to help get resources to the needy in areas recovering from natural or man-made disasters, the company announced in late September.

Distribution of aid to trouble spots around the globe is a notoriously thorny problem. The areas that need help the most are often poorly prepared to receive it, due to damage to infrastructure and social institutions.

MasterCard, which these days tends to focus on enhancing digital delivery of payments services around the globe, is going back to cards in an attempt to take on this longstanding problem. Specifically, the Purchase, N.Y.-based payments giant is distributing cards and card readers to the needy and aid suppliers in areas where humanitarian aid is called for. This solution, called the MasterCard Aid Network, is intended to replace the use of cash, which can be dangerous in areas where the rule of law has broken down. Paper inventory and receipts can also be cumbersome, easy to lose track of, and difficult to reconcile.

The cards and readers work offline, but when linked to online systems, offer reporting and analytics to help manage inventory. The devices and payment instruments are typically delivered by local NGOs partnering with MasterCard. The use cases range from aid workers unloading cargo aircraft to families picking up groceries weeks after the initial shock of a disaster.

The service was developed in MasterCard Labs, an innovation center started in 2012 to help MasterCard keep abreast of the rapid changes in payment technology.

It is interesting to note that, operating offline as it often does, the MasterCard Aid Network functions as an alternative form of currency, backed by the brand recognition of the MasterCard name and the trust placed in it across the globe.

So far, MasterCard Aid has been put to use in two markets, according to Carlos Conejo of MasterCard’s U.S.-based product team. They are Yemen, where it helps Save the Children provide meals to the 41% of the population facing food insecurity; and the Philippines, where it offers microcredit to reconstruct communities following Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, which left more than 6,000 dead and caused more than $2 billion in property damage.

The MasterCard Aid Network was first publicly announced on Sept. 24.

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