Mastercard has launched a new digital tool, Cross-Border Services Express, to enable financial institutions to offer their customers easy and secure international payments. The tool will benefit consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in need of improved cross-border payment capabilities. The service is designed to provide a digital-first experience and delivers customizable and easy-to-implement digital overlays to meet regulatory requirements.
Cross-Border Services Express complements Mastercard’s existing Cross-Border Services offering and helps banks, credit unions and community banks, irrespective of their size, to offer the same international payment features. This, in turn, will enable customers to make quick and secure payments to vendors across the world.
Participating financial institutions using Mastercard’s Cross-Border Services can offer international payments to over 100 markets in more than 60 currencies, covering 90% of the world’s population. With Cross-Border Services Express, financial institutions will be able to get to market faster, reduce transaction risk, and deliver the modernized payment experience that consumers and SMEs seek when making international payments.
The tool aims to address the growing demand for digital payments by offering users the flexibility of delivering funds to bank accounts, mobile wallets, cards and cash payout locations with full transparency and predictability over transaction status and delivery time. The solution will also enable financial institutions to meet the needs of SMEs for efficient and digital cross-border payments solutions they can rely on to pay employees, suppliers and partners quickly.
Mastercard is collaborating with fintechs Fable FinTech and Payall Payment Systems to deliver the new solution through a seamless user interface that meets customers’ increasing expectations for digital experiences.
Mastercard’s 2022 Borderless Payments Report reveals that digital payments are seeing strong growth, with three-quarters of consumers who send and receive cross-border payments using mobile apps. However, challenges still exist around transparency and costs. Additionally, 39% of SME respondents said that cross-border payments slow their supply chain, while one-quarter reported that suppliers had refused to work with them due to uncertainty over payment times.
Alan Marquard, Executive Vice President, Transfer Solutions at Mastercard, said that “Cross-Border Services Express levels the playing field and provides small and mid-tier banks, including credit unions and community banks, with the same international payments features regardless of their size and scale.”
