Forming allies amid a disruption revolution is key to coming up on top, or at least near the top. Countries know this. The Bachelor contestants know this. Financial services companies know this — as evidenced today with the American Express Co. alliance with a startup news.

Indeed, just a couple weeks after launching its mobile payments system Serve, AmEx has shown naysayers one way it will sink its teeth into the digital payment race: By partnering with and investing in Payfone, a mobile payment processing service company that also just reported it closed a $19 million strategic funding round.

The partnership with Payfone, known for its carrier network connections, allows consumers to make purchases from online merchants using their mobile phones at checkout. The logic behind the move is that there are more people worldwide with cell phones than credit cards, and the alliance gives AmEx access to that international population.

From the announcement:

“Consumers will be able to link their mobile numbers to a variety of payment methods including their pre-or-postpaid mobile operator account, as well as via a customer’s Serve account.”

Already, Serve allows customers to make alternative payments, including P2P money transfers, mobile payments, in-store card payments and online transactions. Plus, consumers can withdraw cash at ATMs using their Serve prepaid cards. The new Payfone partnership builds off of these capabilities and marks only the beginning of AmEx’s plans and play for global mobile payment prowess, which was also evident in the credit-card company’s release:

“The alliance is an important next step for the international roll out of Serve,” said Dan Schulman, group president of enterprise growth at AmEx.

The AmEx alliance news is equally interesting as it’s evidence of financial services players realizing they may have to shake up their roots to stay competitive in the payments race. Serve, for example, is not targeted to the elite — AmEx’s historical customer — nor is it exclusive to AmEx products. This direction of openness should continue for AmEx and others in the payment scene. Slowly but surely, the openness in the payment system is growing, and with it, limitations caused by fragmented markets is shrinking.