Mastercard, one of the biggest payment providers worldwide, partnered up with R3, a blockchain-focused firm specialized in the development of distributed applications on top for Corda for usage across industries such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, trade finance, and digital assets. The partnership marks a milestone in the development of a blockchain-powered cross-border payments platform.
According to the announcement made by Mastercard, the partnership aims to provide a solution that will initially focus on connecting global faster payments infrastructures, schemes, and banks supported by a clearing and settlement network operated by Mastercard.
Corda currently has over 300 of the world’s leading financial services firms, technology companies, central banks, regulators and trade associations as part of their ecosystem; which Mastercard intends to take advantage of in the development of this platform.
As explained by Peter Klein, Executive Vice President of New Payment Platforms for Mastercard:
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.
Mastercard hopes the partnership will serve as a bridge between blockchain technology and existing payment systems; which will enable innovations across different sectors, add value to services offered to customers and increase transaction speed, while also standardizing processes between banks and domestic clearing systems.
According to David E. Rutter, CEO of R3:
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.
