Mastercard said it has entered into an agreement to acquire Transfast, a global cross-border account-to-account money transfer network. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The transaction, which is anticipated to close in the second half of 2019, is subject to customary closing conditions.
Transfast will complement Mastercard's wide range of payment solutions by increasing worldwide connectivity in the account-to-account space, enhancing compliance capabilities and offering more robust foreign exchange tools. Transfast currently supports the Mastercard Send solution for business-to-business and person-to-person payment services.
“We believe Transfast gives us the strongest platform to immediately enhance our cross-border capabilities and further deliver on our strategy,” said Michael Miebach, chief product officer for Mastercard. “The addition of Transfast adds to our leading position in meeting business, government and consumer payments needs – whether B2B, P2P or other flows. Today's news cements our collaboration and sets the stage to provide our customers a unique, ready-to-go solution upon closing.”
When businesses send cross-border payments to their vendors and partners, they face higher costs, compliance requirements, and limited predictability of when the transaction will be completed. The combination of Mastercard and Transfast will offer applications that solve these challenges and provide greater transparency and certainty in such transactions.
It will also support financial institutions, digital platforms and other partners as they provide people and businesses the ability to send and receive money how and when they want to virtually any end point across more than 100 markets.
“There are substantial synergies with Mastercard for even further growth across our products,” said Samish Kumar, CEO of Transfast. “Over the past 12 years, we have grown our capabilities to connect, track and settle transactions with almost every bank around the world via our curated and extensive network. We've worked in support of Mastercard Send and this feels like the natural next step in our relationship.”
Prior to this announcement, Mastercard lapsed its offer for Earthport in order to focus on the integration and expansion of Transfast.
