Mastercard has added several new global partners to its Mastercard Installments buy now, pay later (BNPL) program in an effort to help more small businesses across the U.S. offer flexible payment options to their customers, according to a company press release Thursday (July 28).
The new Mastercard Installments partners include HSBC, J.P. Morgan and NatWest in the U.K.; Cross River, Evolve Bank & Trust, Jifiti, Live Oak Bank, MOCA Financial and WebBank in the U.S.; and Saudi National Bank in Saudi Arabia.
The program connects to more than 90 million merchants globally, per the release.
“We believe no matter how you pay, a foundation of strong protections must be in place,” said Craig Vosburg, chief product officer at Mastercard. “Trust is the currency of innovation. Using a Responsible-by-Design approach ensures that we stay ahead of consumer, merchant and bank needs and expectations, continuously building confidence in the payments ecosystem by providing choice at scale.”
According to Mastercard research, more than 70% of small business owners who have used personal installments are likely to adopt business installments products if they become available. As such, small business lender Live Oak Bank will support the program in the U.S., working to make Mastercard Installments available to its 7,000 small business customers.
In March, Mastercard added Amount, Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s, Deserve, H&R Block, i2c, Lithic, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sutton Bank and Walgreens to its lists of Mastercard Installments global partners. The program uses a four-installment method to offer greater payment flexibility.
Read more: Mastercard Scales Its BNPL by Adding Merchants, i2c, H&R Block and Others
The program allows users to access BNPL offers, either approved beforehand through a lender’s mobile banking app or through instant approval during checkout. It also provides access to a network of partners, and a suite of application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be used to power parts of installment.
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