Eye on Mastercard: New Tools for the Mid-Market; a Feedzai Collaboration Targets Scams

Mastercard Inc. is launching a new service it says will help financial institutions better serve their middle-market business clients. The card brand also is working with Feedzai, a fraud-prevention provider, to help FIs better identify and stop scams.

Announced Tuesday, the Mastercard Mid-Market Accelerator suite of products is aimed at helping banks and credit unions whose clients include mid-market businesses, especially those in the lower mid-market, typically those with $10 million to $100 million in annual revenue and between 50 and 250 employees. The mid-market is much desired among FIs and acquirers alike because it can help lower costs and increase revenue.

Available initially in the United States, these tools will address “longstanding barriers that have blocked midsize companies from accessing bespoke tools fit for their sophisticated needs,” Jane Prokop, Mastercard executive vice president and global head of small and medium enterprises, says in a statement.

Among the services in the accelerator program are a new Mastercard business card that has physical and virtual card capabilities. Users also will have access to a cash-flow management service, via Trovata Inc., and an expense-management tool, from Navan. Security products such as identity-theft protection and Zero Liability Protection are included, too.

Making these tools available to mid-market businesses could be helpful because, while they are large enough to need them, they may not have the resources to dedicate development resources to them. “Historically, processes like expense management can be manual and time-consuming, which is especially draining for middle-market companies with leaner teams and resources,” Michael Sindicich, Navan chief executive, says in a statement.

In other Mastercard news, the card brand says its work with Feedzai will help banks identify and stop scams. The card network says banks and credit unions will benefit from Feedzai’s fraud platform, which is currently in use in more than 90 countries. The partnership also will expedite the deployment of Mastercard’s Consumer Fraud Risk service.

In account-to-account payments, the Consumer Fraud Risk service will help both sending and receiving financial institutions with data to help detect and prevent scams in real time, Mastercard says.

The Feedzai platform can analyze every digital transaction, from card purchases to real-time transfers, for multiple risk indicators in real time, Mastercard says. With the integration of information about the device being used, network data, and behavioral biometrics, Feedzai can identify suspicious activity as it’s happening, Mastercard says, and potentially stop the fraud before funds are lost.