Mastercard Closes On Transfast Acquisition

Mastercard said Tuesday (July 9) that it has closed on its previously announced acquisition of Transfast, a deal the payments giant said will strengthen its global presence, especially in cross-border payments.

In a press release, Mastercard said the deal, which had been announced in March, will enable partner banks to service cross-border transactions spanning corporate, consumer, merchant and government customers.

Mastercard said Transfast reaches 90 percent of the world’s population and more than 90 percent of the world’s bank accounts, with reach across more than 100 countries.

The deal will expand Mastercard’s global network and help facilitate person to person and business to business transactions (i.e., account to account), among other payment flows.  In one use case cited in the release, businesses will be able to pay suppliers and employees across borders.

In a statement that accompanied the release, Mastercard Executive Vice President Stephen Grainger said, “Today’s announcement is an exciting milestone for Mastercard in helping to further build democratized access to predictable and faster payments globally. People and businesses expect certain and predictable real-time payments that keep pace with modern life and everyday demands, and now, with reach into 90 percent of global GDP flows, Mastercard is in a prime position to support their cross-border requirements.”

As had been reported back in March, Mastercard said it would acquire the B2B and P2P payments company after it had allowed a window for its previous bid to buy Earthport to lapse. Visa, in turn, acquired Earthport earlier this year.

The financial terms of the agreement through which Mastercard bought Transfast were not disclosed. At the time of the March announcement, Samish Kumar, CEO of Transfast, said that “there are substantial synergies with Mastercard for even further growth across our products. 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.”