Mastercard has agreed to acquire Transfast, a cross-border payments network provider backed by private investment firms GCP Capital Partners and Apis Partners, for an undisclosed price.
Image: Transfast to be acquired by Mastercard. Photo: courtesy of rawpixel/Unsplash.com.
The US payments and technology company said that Transfast will complement its range of payment solutions with increased worldwide connectivity in the account-to-account space, strengthening compliance capabilities and providing more robust foreign exchange tools.
Transfast covers more than 125 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas and Australia. Its payment network comprises direct integrations with more than 300 banks and other financial institutions.
The company enables person-to-person, business-to-business and business-to-person payments services to its partners through API, web, SFTP and mobile product applications.
It also supports the Mastercard Send solution for business-to-business and also person-to-person payment services.
Mastercard chief product officer Michael Miebach said: “We believe Transfast gives us the strongest platform to immediately enhance our cross-border capabilities and further deliver on our strategy.
“The addition of Transfast adds to our leading position in meeting business, government and consumer payments needs – whether B2B, P2P or other flows. Today’s news cements our collaboration and sets the stage to provide our customers a unique, ready-to-go solution upon closing.”
According to Mastercard, businesses when sending overseas payments to their vendors and partners face higher costs and compliance requirements along with limited predictability of timing of the transaction completion. The company said that its combination with Transfast will provide applications that solve the challenges while giving increased transparency and certainty in such cross-border transactions.
The combination is also expected to support financial institutions, digital platforms and other partners, giving people and businesses the ability to send and accept money how and when they want to virtually any end point in more than 100 markets.
Transfast CEO Samish Kumar said: “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.”
The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019.
In another development, Mastercard said that it has withdrawn its £233m or so bid to acquire UK-based fintech company Earthport to focus on Transfast’s integration and expansion.