Global: Mastercard Launches New Solution to Streamline Commercial Cross-Border Payments for Banks

Mastercard has unveiled a new solution designed to enhance commercial cross-border payments by offering near real-time, transparent, and predictable transactions for banks and their corporate clients. The Mastercard Move Commercial Payments service aims to address key operational challenges in the commercial payments landscape, including optimizing liquidity and mitigating counterparty risks.

In a press release on Monday, October 21, Mastercard detailed how this new platform will simplify cross-border operations, improve transparency, and provide end-to-end payment visibility. “Our latest product innovation directly tackles the inefficiencies that have long plagued the commercial cross-border payments market,” said Alan Marquard, Head of Transfer Solutions at Mastercard. “This solution empowers banks to unlock new revenue streams while minimizing risks and enhancing their corporate offerings.”

The Mastercard Move Commercial Payments system focuses on solving key issues such as unpredictability and opaque pricing structures. It offers banks a range of benefits, including faster settlement options, compatibility with existing correspondent banking networks, and additional features like fraud analytics and risk management tools. These improvements are expected to boost efficiency for both banks and the businesses they serve in the international payments space.

The introduction of this solution follows a successful pilot in the United Kingdom, where Mastercard collaborated with Lloyds Banking Group and UBS, utilizing Fnality as the settlement venue. It is now a key part of the broader Mastercard Move portfolio, which focuses on streamlining money transfer capabilities.

Mastercard has recently announced several partnerships aimed at further improving cross-border payment services. On October 10, the company teamed up with Citi to enable cross-border payments to Mastercard debit cards across 14 markets in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with plans for future expansion. Additionally, in September, Mastercard partnered with Safaricom, a leading telecom in East Africa, to enhance payment acceptance and cross-border remittance services for M-PESA, Safaricom’s mobile money platform, benefiting over 636,000 merchants in Kenya.

By bringing fast, transparent, and predictable transactions to the cross-border payments space, Mastercard Move Commercial Payments is set to elevate the standard for global financial transactions, addressing long-standing inefficiencies in international commerce.