Mambu and Mastercard team up to simplify Cross-Border Payments for Banks

Mambu and Mastercard have formed a strategic partnership designed to make it easier for banks to launch and scale cross-border payment services without undertaking complex infrastructure projects.

Mambu and Mastercard Team Up to Simplify Payments

Under the agreement, Mastercard Move will connect with Mambu’s Intelligent Core, giving financial institutions using Mambu a pre-built route into Mastercard’s global money movement capabilities.

The companies say the integration should reduce implementation complexity and shorten the time required for banks to introduce international payment services to retail and SME customers.

Cross-Border Payments Become Part of the Core Banking Stack

The partnership reflects Mambu’s broader expansion beyond core banking infrastructure into payments.

That strategy accelerated following its acquisition of payments platform Numeral in 2024, adding capabilities around payment processing and orchestration.

By connecting Mastercard Move directly into Intelligent Core, Mambu is aiming to make cross-border payments another modular service that banks can introduce without replacing their existing technology stack.

Fernando Zandona, chief executive of Mambu, said financial institutions should not need “years of integration work” to introduce international payment capabilities.

For banks, the appeal is straightforward. Rather than building multiple bilateral connections or integrating separate cross-border payment systems, they can access the functionality through infrastructure already supporting their wider banking services.

Banks Face Rising Expectations for International Payments

The collaboration also reflects increasing pressure on banks to improve the cross-border customer experience.

While domestic payments have become increasingly instant and transparent, international transfers can still involve fragmented processing, unclear fees and limited visibility over when funds will arrive.

Mastercard Move is intended to provide the underlying global money movement capability, while Mambu provides the orchestration layer through which banks can integrate those services into digital customer journeys.

Pratik Khowala, Mastercard’s global head of transfer solutions, said customers increasingly expect greater speed, transparency and certainty when moving money internationally.

The wider significance is the growing convergence between core banking and payments infrastructure.

As banks modernise their technology stacks, cross-border payments are increasingly becoming an embedded platform capability rather than a separate product requiring its own infrastructure.