PURCHASE, N.Y. – MasterCard said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 92.4% of VocaLink Holdings.
Based in London, VocaLink operates key payments technology platforms on behalf of U.K. payment schemes, including:
- BACS – the Automated Clearing House (ACH) enabling direct credit and direct debit payments between bank accounts
- Faster Payments – the real-time account-to-account service enabling payments via mobile, Internet and telephone
- LINK – the U.K. ATM network
In addition, VocaLink offers what MasterCard said are innovative products with global potential, including ZAPP, a mobile payments app that leverages Fast ACH technology, and licenses its software and provides services to support ACH activities in Sweden, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. In 2015, the company reported it processed more than 11-billion transactions.
“This acquisition accelerates MasterCard’s efforts to be an active participant in all types of electronic payments and payment flows and to enhance its services for the benefit of customers and partners,” the company said. “It will allow MasterCard to play a more strategic role in the U.K. payments ecosystem, while bringing the innovation and knowhow from across the globe back to VocaLink’s home market. The result will be even more choice in how consumers, merchants and governments make and receive payments.”
VocaLink supports and expands the products and services MasterCard offers issuers, governments and merchants, giving them even more relevance and touchpoints with the end consumer, the company said. “It will be the first true combination of the traditional person-to-merchant cards business with a clearing business, which when fully developed, presents an additional opportunity to make a deeper and sustained shift from the use of cash and checks in business, government and personal payments.”