Mastercard and Zand Team to Modernize Cross-Border Payments in UAE

Mastercard has partnered with Zand, a United Arab Emirates-based, artificial intelligence-driven FinTech and financial services group.

The collaboration will use Mastercard Move to enable seamless cross-border transfers, from bank accounts to mobile wallets and cash pickup, across the UAE and beyond, according to a Thursday (Aug. 14) press release.

Mastercard Move offers a single integration point for peer-to-peer transfers, business payments and disbursements, the release said. It reaches more than 95% of the world’s banked population, according to the Mastercard Move webpage.

The deal brings proven global rails to Zand’s digital finance offering. Checkout.com already uses Mastercard Move in the UAE for insurance disbursements, wallet cashouts and refunds. A similar Mastercard collaboration with UAE-based Fundbot is designed to streamline B2B payment flows by linking buyers and suppliers.

“Our collaboration with Zand will connect more people and businesses to the financial system, helping drive greater financial inclusion and economic opportunity in the UAE and across the region,” J.K. Khalil, executive vice president and division president of East Arabia at Mastercard, said in the release.

The UAE is a smartphone-rich, innovation-friendly market where FinTechs like Zand and others were first emerging several years ago. In 2022, for example, the Open Finance Lab at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) named Zand among its four participating banks, signaling early regulatory engagement and digital capabilities.

“The payments ecosystem is rapidly growing and evolving in the region and offers compelling potential to accelerate the applications of AI, blockchain and payments technology,” Zand CEO Michael Chan said in the release.

Meanwhile, the May PYMNTS Intelligence report “Global Digital Shopping Index: UAE Edition,” a collaboration with Visa Acceptance Solutions, found that most UAE consumers want to seamlessly connect their shopping journeys across physical and digital channels and different devices.

The report revealed that 53% of UAE shoppers used or wanted to use cross-channel shopping features at the merchant where they most frequently shop. Furthermore, 66.7% completed an online purchase with a mobile phone and shopped in-store with digital assistance from a mobile phone, the most out of the eight countries surveyed.