Tech: Change is now a Mastercard payments processor – and shares are up +70%

This morning, shareholders got some much anticipated news — Change Financial’s (ASX:CCA) Mastercard payment processing platform was complete.

Change Financial is now formally registered as a Mastercard payments processor, the first in five years and second in two whole decades.

The company will now turn its attention to commercialising the platform and will onboard customers from next month.

In the US, it will target 7000 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation banks, 6000 credit unions and mobile banking fintechs.

Change, which had been underperforming for most of 2019, jumped over 60 per cent in morning trade.

The US market alone is worth US$50 billion in 2019, Change told shareholders, and this is expected to grow 20 per cent, per year until 2025.

Wall Street is buying into fintechs; ASX small caps up 60pc in 6 months

In other ASX small cap tech news today:

Smart building material manufacturer ClearVue Technologies (ASX:CPV) has updated shareholders on various product tests. Testing at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) was progressing well, but taking longer than expected because ClearVue’s product was “the first of its kind”.

Electro Optic Systems (ASX: EOS) has launched a new business segment for space communications after finding that laser effects in space could be made with 0.1 per cent of energy previously required. Astronomers use similar technology to measure atmospheric distortion and hence correct incoming stellar images. The company expects this to be profitable immediately and does not intend to raise new funds.

Onemarket (ASX: OMN) will wind up only 15 months after de-merging from Westfield, the board told shareholders this morning. There had been acquisition interest but no offers compared favourably with a windup and returning surplus to shareholders.