Mastercard and Canada’s Vopay partner to launch money movement solution

Mastercard has formed a strategic partnership with Canadian fintech Vopay to simplify near real-time domestic and cross-border money movement for consumers and businesses in Canada.

Mastercard and Vopay will use ‘Mastercard Move’ – a newly-combined portfolio of domestic and international money transfer solutions – to offer their customers a range of payment rails and capabilities to make quick and secure fund transfers.

Through the launch this year of a joint solution, Mastercard and Vopay will enable Canadian businesses and financial institutions to make domestic payouts or disbursements to any enabled debit card or reloadable prepaid card, regardless of the payments network.

In addition, these payments could also be sent directly to the recipient’s bank account using other existing Canadian payment rails.

Domestic disbursements include any payouts made by a business, financial institution or government to a recipient within Canada.

“There is a growing demand for interoperable technology that allows consumers and businesses to move money seamlessly across networks domestically and internationally,” said Ramesh Jayakrishnan, vice president, new payment platforms at Mastercard Canada.

“By leveraging Mastercard Move, including Mastercard’s technology and connectivity to global and domestic networks, VoPay, with its focus on providing a globally interoperable platform with embedded finance capabilities, will deliver significant value to Canadian consumers, businesses and government entities.”

Hamed Arbabi, chief executive officer and founder of VoPay, said the new joint solution will transform user experiences for both senders and recipients.

“This partnership delivers on both companies’ commitment to provide more choice and greater transparency for people who need to send money,” Arbabi added.

“The platform will also transform the way businesses and consumers transfer money internationally.

“Be it personal remittances, small business payments or commercial disbursements, with Mastercard Move, VoPay will enable businesses, financial institutions and consumers to send money to bank accounts, mobile wallets, cards and cash-payout locations in over 100 countries.”

Last month, European paytech Nexi selected Mastercard as its strategic partner across Europe to support the rollout of Open Banking account-based payments.

The two companies  plan to build an integrated digital payment ecosystem using Mastercard Open Banking’s technology.