Mastercard To Bring Santander Debit Cards To The UK

Mastercard and Santander announced a partnership that will issue debit cards to all the bank’s retail account customers on Mastercard’s network.

According to Finextra, customers will start receiving cards at the beginning of next year as part of a four-year reissuing program and an eight-year agreement with Mastercard.

Santander has over nine million U.K. debit cards in circulation linked to their accounts, enabling Mastercard to boost the issuance of its debit cards in the region.

“We are excited about working with Santander, one of the world’s most trusted and innovative banks, to bring new and customer-centric functionality to their debit card offering,” said Mark Barnett, Divisional President for Mastercard in the U.K. “For us, this partnership is further proof that Mastercard’s debit card solutions offer all the flexibility, security and convenience banks and their cardholders require in today’s digital age, and with this agreement, Mastercard gains real scale in the U.K. debit card market.”

Both companies say they plan to focus on offering customers a choice on payment options through innovative, simple and secure means of payments, whether in store, online or mobile.

Mastercard brings to the partnership an expertise in digital payments, fraud analytics and solutions, as well as the ability to offer cardholders exclusive deals from Mastercard’s Priceless sponsorship assets. In addition, no other payments network is more widely accepted.

For its part, Santander will continue to issue Mastercard credit cards across their range of portfolios including All in One, Zero and World Elite propositions.

“We are delighted to be extending our existing credit card relationship with Mastercard into debit cards. We believe that this partnership will enable us to give better payment solutions to our customers and look forward to rolling out the new cards from next year,” said Matt Hall, Santander U.K. Director of Banking and Unsecured Credit.