Zeta, Mastercard partner to power next-gen credit processing for banks, fintechs

Banking tech unicorn and credit card provider Zeta on Monday announced a 5-year global partnership with Mastercard. Mastercard has underscored the partnership by making a financial investment in Zeta, however, the firm did not reveal the exact amount. 

As part of the agreement, the firms will go-to-market jointly to launch credit cards with issuers worldwide on Zeta's modern, cloud-native, and fully API-ready credit processing stack. 

"With Zeta's next-gen credit card processing platform, we are fundamentally rewiring how issuers launch credit card programs by offering new paradigms over legacy mainframe systems," said Bhavin Turakhia, co-founder & CEO of Zeta.

"Amongst other benefits, our stack allows issuers to increase the lending book by composing contextual upsells using our extensive APIs and SDKs; reduce costs via payas-you-go SaaS billing; improve customer satisfaction by launching rich, self-serve experiences for card holders; and launch and iterate faster using our infinitely scalable cloud-native deployment. In Mastercard, we have a partner that is committed to undertake this journey with us and truly believes in this mission," he added.

Zeta explained, in an official statement, that with Mastercard's support and the integration of its capabilities in digital issuance, fraud and risk, loyalty solutions and more, it aims to take the credit card processing industry from the age of fragmented, multi-vendor systems to an age of nimble, composable, single vendor systems that are truly responsive to changing cardholder needs and preferences.

Commenting on the partnership, Sandeep Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Products & Innovation, Asia Pacific, Mastercard, said, "As people shop and bank online more than ever before, Mastercard is partnering with Zeta to provide issuing banks and fintech innovators with modern credit card processing capabilities at scale that will maximize the safety, security and convenience of e-commerce, online banking, and contactless transactions."

"By deploying Zeta's credit processing stack, issuers will have an opportunity to grow their user base, drive higher usage and enter new geographical markets, all while accelerating the cashless revolution around the world," he added. 

The two companies' collaboration began in 2018 in Asia Pacific when Zeta joined Start Path, Mastercard's global start-up engagement program, and continues to gain momentum with Zeta recently joining the Mastercard Developers Partner Network, Engage. 

Through Engage, Zeta will gain access to the Mastercard network to pre-integrate or bundle products and services, including Mastercard's Digital 2 First and Fintech Express programs. The programs will look to provide instant customer KYC and verification, instant digital card issuance, provisioning, and usage.

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