The new, landmark deal doubles down on Change Financial’s already strong relationship with Mastercard in the US.

In a major development, global fintech Change Financial (ASX:CCA) has signed an exclusive six-year direct issuing partnership deal with Mastercard in Australia and New Zealand.

Under the agreement, Change will be able to issue prepaid and debit cards from Q4 under the Mastercard logo.

Regulatory approval for issuing the cards has been granted in New Zealand, and the approval process for an Australian Financial Services Licence is currently underway.

The deal will see Mastercard provide Change with various incentives, including US$1 million that Mastercard will pay upon launch of the first card expected in the first half of FY23.

Change CEO Alastair Wilkie said the agreement will strengthen CCA’s long standing relationship with Mastercard in the US, and help boost the transaction processing capabilities for CCA’s existing clients.

“Our partnership with Mastercard will deliver direct issuing capabilities for our Australian and New Zealand clients, giving them a faster path to market for innovative prepaid and debit card products,” he said.

 

Closer relationship with Mastercard

The step-up collaboration with Mastercard will provide opportunities for Change to enhance its PaaS (Payments as a Service) offering, Vertexon.

Vertexon launched in October last year, and provides quick-to-market card and payments solutions to banks and fintechs across the Oceania region.

The platform provides a bunch of user features such as transaction processing and integrated loyalty programmes.

The onboarding of clients onto the Vertexon platform (expected to commence in Q4 FY22) will go hand in hand with the onboarding of Change onto the Mastercard platform, providing the aussie-listed fintech with opportunities to collaborate across data and technology.

Oceania is a key growth market that already generates 29% of Change’s revenue, and accounts for a full third of its client base.

With the Mastercard agreement in place, Change will focus on securing new fintech clients as well as migrating small to medium size banks and credit unions from legacy card platforms.

Direct issuing will also enable Change to have a closer relationship with Mastercard, and removes the requirement of an issuing bank partnership (as is required in the US).

Mastercard vice president, digital partnerships, Australasia, Dan Martin commented, “There’s a significant opportunity to provide Australian and New Zealand mid-sized banks and fintechs with the tools and services to best meet the changing expectations of a more digital world.”

“This partnership brings the best of our respective strengths, including Mastercard’s global payment network and technology, to enable Change’s customers to create and launch prepaid and debit card programs seamlessly, safely and securely.”

The term of the agreement is six years, and there are standard termination rights for both Change and Mastercard for non-performance by the other party.

This article was developed in collaboration with Change Financial, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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