Mastercard and Infosys Forge Alliance, Redefining Cross-border Payments

The recent collaboration between Mastercard and digital transformation leader Infosys to scale cross-border payments will see the integration of Mastercard Move—a portfolio of money-movement capabilities—with Infosys Finacle, an industry leader in digital banking solutions. The aim is to equip banks with a scalable and frictionless solution for cross-border payments.

“The strategic collaboration with Infosys provides financial institutions with easy access to these capabilities, enabling them to facilitate fast, secure and reliable cross-border payments for their customers while enhancing control of risk, operations, costs and liquidity for themselves,” Pratik Khowala, EVP and Global Head of Transfer Solutions, Mastercard, said in a release.

The alliance aims to address a long-standing challenge in the finance world: International transactions have long been associated with high costs, lack of transparency, and lengthy delays. By incorporating Mastercard’s own extensive global network directly into the core infrastructure of hundreds of banks worldwide, the two companies can together create a single point of access that financial institutions can use to modernize their own payment services.

More than 1,300 banks across 100 countries use Infosys Finacle, serving over a billion end customers. Thanks to Mastercard Move integration, those banks will now be able to avoid the complex, resource-intensive individual integrations that were previously necessary to access disparate payment rails. The new partnership will instead give them a ‘plug-and-play’ capability that allows them to connect to the Mastercard Move network, facilitating seamless payments to and from accounts and mobile wallets around the world.

Beyond immediate technical benefits, the move highlights the superiority of unified financial systems over the fragmented environments of old, epitomizing the shift towards a ‘platform of platforms’ model. Instead of competing, these two giants in their respective fields have chosen to collaborate, allowing them to create a solution that’s significantly more powerful than the sum of its parts. 

The collaboration is also a masterclass in embedded finance at an infrastructural level. Payments are no longer just being offered as a separate application or function. Instead, they’re integrated directly into the core banking infrastructure that institutions rely on every day. This approach, were complex capabilities are modularized and made accessible via APIs, mirrors the core philosophy of the  banking-as-a-service (BaaS) model, which allows financial services to be embedded anywhere they’re needed,  including in non-financial apps and platforms.

For fintechs like neobanks, there’s a clear lesson: strategic partnerships that leverage complementary strengths offer a fast track to achieving the scale and innovation that would otherwise be impossible. Incumbents can also benefit from such partnerships by leveraging their positions of scale and reach. While fintechs boast agility, incumbents like Mastercard have the established trust, reputation, and immense reach. Ultimately, it serves as a blueprint for the future of finance; one built on collaborative ecosystems that deliver value at scale.