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Mastercard Inc. announced early Friday it is expanding its Installments payments program to all eligible digital points of sale within its network in the United States.
The expansion will enable merchants, financial service providers, payment processors, and digital-wallet providers to present installment offers to consumers through any eligible credit card from participating issuers via a single platform, the network says.
Global Payments Inc., Skipify Inc., a SanFrancisco-based digital wallet and checkout app provider, and buy now, pay later provider Splitit are working with Mastercard to facilitate the expansion.
Launched in the United States in 2021, Mastercard Installments enables participants to offer a variety of installment-payment options to Mastercard card holders, including a zero-percent-interest, pay-in-four model.
Installments payments, such as those enabled by buy now, pay later services, are popular with consumers. Some two-thirds of users say installment payments allow them to stick to a budget and not overspend, Mastercard says.
Issuers participating in the program can extend installment-payment offers to consumers through a variety of payment channels, including participating digital wallets, connected point-of-sale systems, and other digital-payment options. Mastercard cardholders can take advantage of offers through their existing cards.
At the same time, participating merchants will be able to provide access to millions of pre-approved installment-payment offers by connecting to Mastercard’s API-based platform.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen consumer demand and adoption of installments continue to rise as digital-payment options grow across channels,” Seema Chibber, executive vice president, core products, for Mastercard North America, says in a statement. “That momentum is driven by issuer and merchant desire to deliver simple, transparent, and flexible ways to pay.”
