Contis joins forces with Mastercard in Europe

Leading European payments fintech Contis today announced its partnership with Mastercard as a principal issuing member. Through this partnership, Contis delivers a comprehensive end-to-end Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform including direct access to both of the world’s leading global payments networks, accepted by millions of merchants worldwide.

The addition of Mastercard represents another step in Contis Group’s growth as a global issuer and card processor. Throughout 2020, Contis delivered against key milestones in its planned expansion, including securing full Brexit readiness by moving its entire EEA client-base to its European entity and migrating a million customers to new cloud-native data centres in London and Amsterdam. Contis has also added key functionality to the platform including open banking, international currency conversion, cardless cash delivery and request to pay capabilities which, when linked to its UK and SEPA payment accounts, delivers the most comprehensive end-to-end BaaS solution. With Mastercard’s significant presence across the EEA and collaborative approach to fintech, Contis will further embed itself into Europe’s critical financial infrastructure.

This new partnership will enable Contis to bring greater choice to the market and supplement the range of products and services offered in key commercial verticals including banking, fintech, insurance and corporate remittance.

Mastercard is the partner of choice for new and existing fintechs across Europe, enabling them to scale at speed. Mastercard’s overarching fintech platform – Mastercard Accelerate –  gives start-ups and emerging brands support and assistance for every stage of their growth and transformation, from market entry to global expansion. Mastercard Accelerate is comprised of four main programmes: Fintech Express, Start Path, Engage and Developers.

Peter Cox, Executive Chairman and Founder at Contis Group said: “Contis delivers Europe’s most comprehensive payments BaaS platform. We see this partnership with Mastercard as an important step on our journey to becoming a leading global issuer and processor. It will enable us to augment our offering for prospects and clients by bringing more choice to the market, as we deliver secure frictionless payments to businesses and individuals across Europe and beyond.”

Scott Abrahams, Senior Vice President. Business Development and Fintech commented: “At Mastercard we are proud of our track record with Fintechs across Europe, helping them to rise to the next level by sharing our considerable industry expertise, technology and global standards. We are delighted to be working with Contis to bring greater choice and value to consumers and businesses by delivering frictionless experiences and ongoing innovation.”

Platform integration work is starting immediately, with expected go-live on the Mastercard network by Q2 2021.