In a significant development poised to reshape the global payments landscape, Mastercard and Infosys have unveiled a strategic collaboration aimed at scaling cross-border payments with enhanced speed, security, and reliability. Announced on August 28, 2025, this partnership integrates Mastercard Move, Mastercard's comprehensive money movement portfolio, with Infosys Finacle, the digital banking solution offered by Infosys's subsidiary EdgeVerve Systems. This fusion promises to deliver financial institutions the ability to implement advanced cross-border payment solutions faster and with fewer resources than traditionally required.
Key Developments in the Collaboration
The collaboration focuses on creating seamless pathways for banks and financial institutions worldwide to access Mastercard Move’s broad portfolio, which supports money transfers across more than 200 countries and in over 150 currencies. By embedding Mastercard Move capabilities directly into the Infosys Finacle platform, institutions can now significantly reduce implementation time and complexity, enabling near real-time cross-border payments for their customers while enhancing operational efficiency and risk management.
Strategic Significance for Financial Institutions
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Rapid Integration and Deployment: The partnership allows institutions to integrate cross-border payment functionalities on the Infosys Finacle platform quickly, reducing the intensive resourcing and extended timelines usually associated with integration projects.
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Broader Global Reach: Mastercard Move’s extensive network covers more than 95% of the world’s banked population, supporting transactions in over 200 countries and 150 currencies, which ensures banks can offer robust, global payment services to a wide customer base.
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Enhanced Risk and Cost Management: With integrated control mechanisms and operational oversight, financial institutions benefit from improved management of risks, operational costs, and liquidity.
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Addressing Growing Remittance Demand: This alliance particularly responds to the rising demand for remittances, highlighted by Asia’s role in nearly half of global remittance inflows in 2024, facilitating faster and more secure payments across borders.
Insights from Leadership
Pratik Khowala, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Transfer Solutions at Mastercard, highlighted the partnership’s importance, emphasizing that through Mastercard Move, individuals and organizations are empowered to move money swiftly and securely across borders. He noted that the collaboration with Infosys simplifies access for financial institutions to these cutting-edge capabilities, enabling them to provide faster, reliable payments experiences to their customers.
Similarly, Sajit Vijayakumar, CEO of Infosys Finacle, pointed out that combining Finacle’s composable banking platform with Mastercard’s global money movement infrastructure equips banks to deliver fast, secure cross-border experiences, meeting rising consumer expectations for digital payment services worldwide.
Real-Time Payments Market Opportunity
The partnership taps into the lucrative and rapidly growing real-time payments market, projected to rise from $12.30 billion in 2024 to $114.94 billion by 2032. The integration is designed to overcome bottlenecks caused by legacy systems and regulatory complexities, making cross-border payments nearly instantaneous and reducing frictions for financial institutions and their clients.
Compliance and Risk Management Innovation
AI-Powered Compliance Tools: The collaboration incorporates advanced analytics and AI-driven compliance technologies to facilitate real-time monitoring of transactions, enhancing fraud detection and mitigating money laundering risks.
Regulatory Alignment: By embedding compliance within the payment flows, the partnership supports adherence to evolving global regulations such as standardized sender-recipient requirements for transfers above certain thresholds.
Embedded Finance and New Revenue Models
The alliance also enables the embedding of cross-border payment capabilities into broader digital ecosystems, such as e-commerce and supply chain platforms. This fosters new revenue opportunities for financial institutions by democratizing access to international payments, especially for small businesses and emerging market participants who may lack traditional banking relationships.
Benefits for Financial Institutions and Customers
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Accelerated Transaction Speeds: Users gain access to near real-time cross-border payment services, enhancing customer satisfaction with quick and predictable transaction outcomes.
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Simplified Integration: Banks can deploy advanced payment solutions with significantly less technical overhead and lower costs.
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Improved Risk Controls: Embedded compliance and liquidity management systems reduce potential financial risks for providers and end-users alike.
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Expanded Market Access: Financial institutions can serve more global customers efficiently by leveraging Mastercard’s extensive international reach.
This collaborative initiative between Mastercard and Infosys represents a pivotal advancement in the ongoing transformation of global finance, promising to streamline cross-border money movement for millions of users worldwide, while equipping financial institutions with the technological tools necessary to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving digital economy.
Source: Nasdaq (RTTNews), CNBC-TV18, Moneycontrol, TechCircle, AInvest, PR Newswire
