This write up is in Payments Source and provides an update on the Mastercard Track BPS, which we have discussed before here on these pages.
What started out as an initial product announcement in late 2018 about a B2B network for information sharing has become a series of releases around incremental features. In this case, Mastercard is touting the eventual arrival of account-to-account payments, including real-time.
‘It will take years to fully complete the project, but Mastercard on Monday announced the availability of real-time account-to-account corporate payments for U.S. firms through its Mastercard Track Business Payment Service (BPS), with plans to add cross-border payments next year…Account-to-account B2B payments will be available in all global regions through the service by the end of next year, leveraging The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments, ACH and infrastructure Mastercard acquired from European providers including VocaLink and Nets, Mastercard said.’
Readers may have seen the recent announcement that Vocalink will be leading the way in building out Canada’s RTR by 2022. So as we have all heard by now the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of payments automation, most particularly in the U.S. where until recently checks had remained as a majority of B2B payments.
Mastercard product distribution is through banks and other 3rd party partners who service the global payments space. So we will see how the growth develops as we move away from the pandemic (one hopes) in 2021.
‘The growing popularity of RTP for B2B payments is also working to accelerate development of Mastercard Track BPS, he said. “RTP is a relatively recent innovation, and the timing has worked out well all around so now suppliers to say what kind of payments they want to take and when to accept them, which buyers can discover through an API,” Anderson said….“We’ve created an open-loop system that’s analogous to how we operate as a card network — but instead of just connecting banks and card users, we’re enabling corporations, banks and fintechs to pick any payment rail through our platform,” he said.’
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
