Mastercard acquires Transfast to expand payment network

Mastercard has announced the completion of the acquisition of Transfast, a global payments company with significant cross-border network reach. 

Mastercard, a technology company in the global payments industry based in New York, originally declared the intent to buy Transfast on March 8, 2019. 

The acquisition builds on Mastercard's strength in payments and drives improved transparency and certainty in cross-border transactions, enabling people and businesses to send and receive money beyond borders with greater speed and ease, Mastercard said in a statement. 

Transfast will enable Mastercard to continue servicing the growing needs of consumers and businesses as well as governments and merchants in cross-border transactions. It builds on Mastercard's strategy to offer choice to its customers through the expansion of the Mastercard global network. 

"This move adds to Mastercard's leading position in meeting business, government and consumer payment requirements, whether it's business to business, person to person or other payment flows

In the statement, Stephen Grainger, executive vice-president of Mastercard, said: "Today's announcement is an exciting milestone for Mastercard in helping further build democratised 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."

Increasingly, people and businesses across the globe want timely, reliable and cost-effective ways to pay and get paid. The acquisition allows Mastercard to service businesses and organisations across a wider variety of sectors with different needs. This includes businesses paying suppliers and employees across borders.

Samish Kumar, CEO of Transfast, said:  "This is a pivotal day for Transfast as we embark on the natural next step in our journey. Mastercard's global reach complements our own network across over 100 countries, and together we will grow within the account-to-account payments space, helping organisations improve operational efficiencies and supporting wider economic growth."

"Alongside Mastercard, we look forward to developing new innovations and products to support people and businesses to predict and plan when they pay people and get paid, enabling them to thrive."