Mastercard introduced a new product innovation, Mastercard Move Commercial Payments, that will enable banks to facilitate near real-time, predictable and transparent commercial cross-border payments.

The new solution aims to simplify operations, optimize liquidity, reduce counterparty risk and provide end-to-end visibility for banks and their customers.

Cross-border payments have been growing at double-digit rates, according to data from McKinsey, as businesses expand their supply chains and operations internationally. Despite this, banks still grapple with several pain points which are passed on to their business customers in the shape of slow and unpredictable cross-border payments that lack pricing transparency.

Mastercard Move Commercial Payments aims to address existing challenges and capitalize on opportunities in commercial cross-border payments in an innovative way.

Key features include:

• Near real-time payments, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help banks transform corporate trade payments and intra- and inter-company treasury flows where working capital efficiency is crucial.
• Settlement options to give banks more flexibility to optimize liquidity efficiencies, with no impact on FX and deposit-related bank revenue.
• Multilateral arrangement embedded to reduce counterparty risk and provide outcome certainty on end-to-end transaction clearing in near real-time.
• Leverages banks’ existing investments in Swift messaging infrastructure, with a single technical connection that allows corridors and currencies to be added with minimal cost and resources.
• Fully compatible with existing correspondent banking arrangements between respondents and correspondents. Large clearing banks can extend the service to their institutional customers with minimal changes to their current processes.
• Value-added services tailored for a bank’s unique needs, including innovative risk control services and fraud analytics.

Alan Marquard, Head of Transfer Solutions at Mastercard, commented:

“Our latest product innovation aims to directly address the pain points that are currently affecting the commercial cross-border payments market. By shifting to this new model, they will be empowered to generate new revenue streams while reducing risk and enhancing the offering for their corporate customers.”

In a pilot in the UK with Lloyds Banking Group and UBS, using Fnality as the settlement venue, Mastercard Move Commercial Payments is being used to deliver near real-time, around-the-clock cross-border transfers.

Mastercard Move Commercial Payments is part of the Mastercard Move portfolio of money transfer capabilities that enables people and businesses to move funds quickly and securely, both domestically and internationally.