Mastercard Collaborates With Blockchain Firm R3 for Cross-Border Payments Solution

Mastercard and R3, a major enterprise level blockchain software vendor, has unveiled a tactical alliance to create and trial a fresh blockchain-enabled trans-border payment system that will originally concentrate on linking quicker global payment infrastructures, systems and banks backed by a Mastercard-operated clearing and settlement network.

R3 ecosystem has more than 300 stake holders across various public and private sector industries to build on Corda, its open-source blockchain system, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial version of Corda for implementation in enterprises.

More than 2,000 technology, finance, and constitutional experts derived from its dynamic environment support R3’s international group of over 200 professionals in 13 nations. The Corda platform is now used in sectors ranging from financial services to healthcare, transport, insurance and more.

It registers, administers and implements monetary deals of organizations in ideal sync with their competitors, establishing a universe of seamless trade.

With its takeover of Transfast, Mastercard consolidated its trans-border network penetration earlier in 2019. Today’s announcement augments the tremendous capacities of the company by offering connections to the Corda ecosystem of R3, which involves more than 300 of the world’s major financial services firms, technology firms, central banks, authorities and trade organizations.

The collaboration is the recent phase in the multi-rail approach of Mastercard, offering unparalleled option for clients in how they transfer cash. By integrating R3’s knowledge in blockchain with Mastercard’s current resources, brand and delivery billing solutions, the collaboration will provide clients with increasingly creative value-added services, targeting considerations such as heavy overhead handling, liquidity governance, and the current absence of standardization and procedures between companies and national clearing platforms.

Regarding the partnership with R3, Peter Klein, executive vice president of New Payment Platforms for Mastercard, said:

“Developing a new and better cross-border B2B payments solution by improving worldwide connectivity in the account-to-account space is central to Mastercard’s ambition. Our goal is to deliver global payment infrastructure choice and connectivity as demonstrated through our recent strategic acquisitions and partnerships, including our relationship with R3. It confirms our commitment to innovation, both home-grown and through partnerships and acquisitions, to support advances and innovation in the increasingly complex global payment infrastructure space”

Expressing his happiness about the partnership, David Rutter, CEO of R3, added:

“We are excited to partner with Mastercard to help shape the future of the digital payments ecosystem. All institutions – large or small – rely on the ability to send and receive payments, but all too often the technology they rely upon is cumbersome and expensive. Cross-border payments can be a particular pain point. Corda was designed specifically for enterprise use cases such as this, and we look forward supporting Mastercard in bringing blockchain-enabled payments businesses across the globe.”