Mastercard continues to move forward with its multi-rail strategy by adding Account-to-Account payments (A2A) to Mastercard Track™ Business Payment Service. This sets in motion the next stage in Mastercard’s journey to innovate payments and address specific pain points experienced by buyers and suppliers.
With the success of card payments within Mastercard Track Business Payment Service, businesses will now have an equivalent experience with A2A payments. The exchange of information will be more efficient and it will facilitate payments over multiple rails, this includes Real Time Payments (RTP) and the Automated Clearing House (ACH) in the U.S.
More Functionalities To Come
The Account-to-Account payments function in Track Business Payment Service is available in the U.S.. It is expected to reach all regions by the end of 2021. Also coming the following year are cross-border payments.
Track Business Payment Service provides businesses with more control of their payments and facilitates data exchanges. It also offers the capability to automate payments without having to share bank account information.
According to Mastercard research, almost 80% of mid-to-large sized suppliers believe the sharing of bank account information as a business risk. However, the risk of bank account data being jeopardized is diminished since suppliers no longer need to share their sensitive bank account information with buyers. Buyers also don’t need to store that information.
James Anderson, Executive Vice President of Global Commercial and B2B Solutions at Mastercard had this to say:
“Today, the vast majority of B2B payments are made through bank account transfers. Extending Mastercard Track Business Payment Service to support these transfers is a step on our way to building out the best and most secure B2B payment network in the world. Our commitment to supporting multiple payment rails has always been about helping customers operate more efficiently and effectively leveraging all the capabilities available in the market with as little change as possible. This milestone is another step in the journey away from paper-based frustration, incomplete data and manual reconciliation work and toward a fully digitized business payments process.”
Streamlining B2B Payments Around The World
In May 2020, Mastercard launched the commercial version of Track Business Payment Services for all U.S. card payments. Now, businesses of any size can utilize this service in order to pay or receive payment through these new distribution partners worldwide, including: bzPay, Girasol Payment Solutions, Network International, Gardenia Technologies, Pendo Technologies Corp., Today Payments, Inc., Plastiq, Transcard, Yak Pay, and Ukheshe.
By using Track Business Payment Service, commercial businesses have more control and simplicity in how they pay and receive payment across numerous payment types.
More Acquisitions Cements Mastercard’s Commitment Multi-Rail Strategy
Mastercard’s multi-rail strategy has been beneficial as the pressure began to mount on payments companies in order to get government relief funds into the hands of cash-strapped citizens. This initially required access to their accounts. Chief executive Michael Miebach said they needed to have the best solution beyond cards.
In order to secure “non-card transactions”, Mastercard will acquire Seattle-based Ekata Inc. for $850 million. This new deal will help expedite Mastercard’s multi-rail strategy since Ekata, according to Miebach, has access to “data points to generate very accurate identity scores.”
The network also closed on the acquisition of the account-to-account processing business, Nets Group, based in Denmark. This technology can now be used by smaller clients.