MasterCard Send debuts as faster alternative to ACH payments

Through a single connection to the MasterCard Send platform, businesses, merchants, governments, non-profits, issuers and other senders can send money to consumers whether they are banked or unbanked, and located domestically or abroad. By digitizing personal payments that are typically handled via cash or check, MasterCard is providing greater convenience, choice and security to both payment senders and receivers in developed and developing markets.

From Mobile Payments Today –

“Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve issued a plan for collaborating with payment industry stakeholders to find a way to enhance the speed, safety and efficiency of what has become an outdated and inefficient system.

One of the Fed's desired outcomes is to improve the speed by which payments clear, particularly those that involve the ACH Network. Though the industry is still a few years from solving that problem, MasterCard Tuesday introduced a system that enables various payment industry stakeholders, including merchants, to sidestep ACH and use the established debit card networks to send funds to consumers in about the time it takes to complete an ATM transaction.

MasterCard Send is being touted as a first-of-its-kind service to enable businesses, merchants, governments, nonprofits and issuers to transfer funds to consumers' checking accounts via any U.S. debit card, including non-MasterCard debit cards.

Send is now live in the U.S., but MasterCard plans to expand it overseas to enable the aforementioned entities to transfer funds into mobile money accounts and cash agent outlets in addition to debit cards.’

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