Mastercard and US bank Citizens expand payments partnership

Mastercard has become the exclusive payments network of Citizens Financial Group’s credit, debit and commercial portfolios, as well as its services provider in the US, in an expansion of their partnership.

US banking group Citizens will use Mastercard’s network, Open Banking technology and services, such as its digital identity solutions, to develop new products and features to support consumer and business payments offerings.

The expanded partnership will see the two companies collaborate to develop payments technologies, fraud prevention tools and use Open Banking for the benefit of US consumers.

Linda Kirkpatrick, president, North America at Mastercard, said: “We are proud to work with a brand that champions financial empowerment, and we look forward to bringing new products, services and capabilities to complement the strong value proposition Citizens provides to consumers and businesses.”

Citizens offers a range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions, and has more than 1,100 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia.

“Citizens’ recent growth has been fuelled by our development of new and innovative customer-centric capabilities,” said Brendan Coughlin, head of consumer banking at Citizens.

“Customer expectations around payments are rapidly increasing, and our expanded partnership with Mastercard enables us to accelerate our market position and provide customers with industry-leading solutions and experiences.”

UK retail bank Secure Trust Bank teamed up with Mastercard in December last year to be able to offer Open Banking-enabled account-to-account payments.