Mastercard Unveils Open Banking Programme for Card Issuers in the US

Payments giant Mastercard has launched its new ‘Open Banking for Account Opening’ programme for select US debit and prepaid products, hoping to streamline and secure account opening.

The move will see Mastercard provide a foundational set of open banking products as a new core benefit to Mastercard consumers, small business debit issuers, as well as consumer prepaid issuers in the US. Mastercard’s new programme looks to improve the digital account opening process by verifying account ownership, lowering account abandonment, reducing non-sufficient fund (NSF) returns, and minimising manual entry of payment credentials.

In a recent study, Insider Intelligence found that Gen Z mobile banking adoption continues to rise by 12.4 per cent year-on-rise, leading to predictions that it will rise from 20.7 million in 2020 to 47.8 million by 2026.

Recognising the demands of an increasingly digital world, Mastercard aims to provide participating US issuers who opt into the program free access to Mastercard’s ‘Account Owner Verification’, ‘Account Detail Verification’ and ‘Account Balance Check’ solutions when used to support digital account opening of a Mastercard branded consumer and small business debit and general-purpose reloadable consumer prepaid product.

‘Another entry point to the digital economy’

Mastercard open banking draws on the safe exchange of consumer-permission data, leveraging industry standards and machine learning to support a seamless and secure digital account opening experience. With ‘Open Banking for Account Opening’, Mastercard issuers can lower abandonment and inactive through rapid account funding, verify account ownership more accurately and reduce costly NSF returns with real-time balance checks.

Silvana Hernandez, executive vice president, product and engineering, North America, at Mastercard, commented: “Today’s digital consumer is increasingly opening bank accounts online, gravitating towards the convenience and efficiency of the experience versus more traditional manual methods. The open banking for Account Opening programme provides another entry point to the digital economy through valuable and secure experiences that lean into the power of consumer-permission data.”

Mastercard open banking is enabling customers and partners to offer a more modern and secure digital account opening experience, leveraging solutions that span the entire enterprise. Mastercard is also hoping to strengthen the ecosystem for all participants, making relevant use cases safer, simpler and more accessible through open banking.