Industry and Consumers to Benefit from More Choice, Greater Innovation in Payments
“We believe the future of payments will be defined by choice,” said Michael Miebach, chief product officer, Mastercard. “Adding bank account-based payments alongside our card network extends what we can do and how we can do it. Together, we’ll be one partner to meet all payment needs of businesses, governments and consumers.”
A leader in bank account-based payments, VocaLink’s technology powers immediate payments (also known as fast ACH) in the world’s largest financial markets. This includes the UK, Singapore and Thailand, with the U.S. scheduled to go live later this year. The acquisition will enable Mastercard to play a more strategic role in the UK as well as in other markets around the world.
VocaLink will add its outstanding team with specialized expertise, unique bank account-based technology and services such as fraud management analytics to the existing Mastercard business. The combination will enable a more holistic approach to retail, person-to-person and business-to-business payments and a broader range of services. This presents an additional opportunity to make a deeper and sustained shift from the use of cash and checks in business, government and personal payments.
“We have the opportunity to extend everything that we’ve accomplished with cards to bank account-based payments and redraw the lines of what’s possible in commerce. We’ll make it more inclusive, by expanding access to electronic payments. We’ll break down barriers, by innovating across payment types and payment flows. We’ll make it faster, bringing additional real-time payment options to more places and across more devices,” Miebach continued.
Now that the regulatory review has concluded, Mastercard and VocaLink will work to close the transaction within the next few weeks. Upon closing, David Yates will join the Mastercard management committee and become executive chair of VocaLink. Paul Stoddart will be promoted to CEO of VocaLink.
Mastercard (NYSE:MA) is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone.
VocaLink is a global payments partner to banks, corporates and governments. VocaLink designs, builds and operates world-class platforms that make it easier for people to make payments confidently and securely. In the UK, VocaLink processes over 90 percent of salaries, more than 70 percent of household bills and almost all state benefits. It implemented the FAST service in Singapore and processes the majority of Sweden’s automated payments. VocaLink’s high availability, resilient payment systems power the Faster Payments Service on behalf of the Faster Payments Scheme, the Account Switching platform, Bacs and the Direct Debit Scheme. VocaLink also connects the world’s busiest network of over 70,000 ATMs through the LINK scheme. Last year VocaLink processed over 11 billion transactions with a value of £6 trillion – powering economies and empowering people.
