Mastercard ‘Moves’ Into Commercial Cross-Border Payment Solution for Banks

Mastercard introduced a new solution that will enable banks to facilitate commercial cross-border payments that are near real-time, predictable and transparent.

The new Mastercard Move Commercial Payments is designed to simplify operations, optimize liquidity, reduce counterparty risk and provide end-to-end visibility for banks and their customers, the company said in a Monday (Oct. 21) press release.

“Our latest product innovation aims to directly address the pain points that are currently affecting the commercial cross-border payments market,” Alan Marquard, head of transfer solutions at Mastercard, said in the release. “By shifting to this new model, they will be empowered to generate new revenue streams while reducing risk and enhancing the offering for their corporate customers.”

Mastercard Move Commercial Payments aims to solve pain points like unpredictability and a lack of pricing transparency, helping banks and the businesses they serve capitalize on opportunities in cross-border transactions, according to the release.

For banks, the solution provides near real-time payments, settlement options, compatibility with existing correspondent banking arrangements between respondents and correspondents, and value-added services like risk control services and fraud analytics, the release said.

The introduction of this solution follows a pilot in the United Kingdom with Lloyds Banking Group and UBS, using Fnality as the settlement venue, per the release. It joins the Mastercard Move portfolio of money transfer capabilities.

“By powering fast, predictable and transparent payments, Mastercard Move Commercial Payments will bring what is already the norm in domestic payments to the commercial cross-border payment space,” Marquard said in the release.

Mastercard announced several partnerships in recent months that are designed to facilitate cross-border payments.

On Oct. 10, the company teamed up with Citi to enable cross-border payments to Mastercard debit cards. The companies are launching this capability in 14 receiving markets across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and U.S. domestic transfers, and plan to expand it further in the future.

In September, Mastercard launched a partnership with East African telecom Safaricom, saying the collaboration is designed to boost the adoption of payment acceptance and cross-border remittance services in Kenya for the benefit of more than 636,000 merchants using M-PESA, Safaricom’s mobile money service.