As the card industry continues to be under threat from expanding payment types such as faster/instant/real time payments, Mastercard and other traditional card-based networks are moving beyond plastic. They are diversifying to take advantage of new payment flows, including business-to-business (B2B), person-to-person (P2P), business-to-consumer (B2C), and government disbursements, by extending their solutions to solve problems across crucial business processes.

In Celent’s view, Mastercard Track Business Payment Service’s open-loop nature has the potential to be a key differentiator. Mastercard hopes to use its strengths in creating networks to bring together banks, buyers, suppliers, procure to pay/payables automation vendors, and order to cash/receivables automation vendors. Mastercard Track Business Payment Service supplies an API-first, systemic way to bring all of the ecosystem players together, with a single connection facilitating the conversation between unaffiliated entities.