Most who participate in payments industry are well aware of the Mastercard acquisition of VocaLink. An article in Forbes provides a glimpse into how Mastercard plans to use its newly acquired capabilities to play a larger role in ACH and cash and other non-card payment transactions:
Michael Miebach, Mastercard’s chief product officer, said the acquisition will let Mastercard evolve its business model.
“We were looking for a way to participate in a broader range of payment flows as a complement to what we already do,” he said. “Our industry has massive growth fundamentals with 85 percent of transactions still in cash, and that is just retail payments. If you look at all payments, 50 percent is in ACH. We looked around and said we have a network, and endpoints, but there is an aspect of ACH and Fast ACH that we don’t have. VocaLink stood out as someone who has mastered all the requirements in ACH. We see ACH as a complement that makes us more relevant to a merchant or bank. We can be your partner in payments, regardless of the type of payment.”
This is an interesting contrast to the efforts Visa has made recently in its partnership with PayPal to move ACH transactions to a card transaction. More on that here.
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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