Mastercard Looking For A Seat At The UK Table With VocaLink Acquisition

Mastercard Inc MA is looking to regain market share in the UK after its acquisition of VocaLink. The company acquired VocaLink, a real time payment processor, earlier in the year for $900 million to cut into Visa's dominance in the Commonwealth.

Over the past decade, MasterCard's UK debit-card business "nearly evaporated" due to increased competition from Visa.

"With VocaLink, MasterCard now has a weapon to create Digital-payment methods that link directly to one's bank account and an ability to price these transactions outside the regulatory caps imposed by the European Union," according to CLSA.

Real time payments are said to change the way banks facilitate payments. As real time payments in card transactions becoming more common in more countries, account-to-account transfers also become easier as more countries update their infrastructure.

"VocaLink had some exposure in countries outside the UK but lacked the international scale to take advantage of global opportunities. MasterCards ownership will ensure a seat at the negotiating table with those countries seeking technology partners to help build a local real-time payment system."