Mastercard Enables Banks and Merchants to Rapidly Innovate with New Digital Platform that Integrates Leading Fintech Solutions and Mastercard Capabilities

The Mastercard Innovation Engine™ serves as a hub for the enablement of varying digital solutions, the first of which provides highly personalized and contextually relevant cardholder experiences

Today, Mastercard introduced the Mastercard Innovation Engine, an API based digital platform that enables issuers and merchants a simplified path to rapidly deploying digital capabilities and experiences to their customers. The plug-and-play platform seamlessly brings together Mastercard assets and financial-technology services to deliver unique and digitally integrated solutions and consumer experiences through a single connection. The platform facilitates collaboration and drive continuous innovation across the ecosystem.

“Consumer expectations are changing rapidly and as a result we must keep pace. Given where Mastercard sits at the epicenter of payments, we recognize that we can serve as a hub for scaled innovation delivered through our issuing partners. By enabling our customers a means to significantly faster speed to market, together, we can drive the digital transformation of the consumer experience,” says Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Core Products, Mastercard.

The first solution built leveraging the Mastercard Innovation Engine focuses on contextually-relevant and personalized digital engagement and servicing. Created in collaboration with Flybits and Kasisto, the Mastercard Contextual Engagement Solution provides U.S. issuers and merchants a seamless digital channel for consumers to understand, interact and maximize their card benefits and rewards.

The solution is powered with near real-time triggering capabilities and end-to-end digital servicing and leverages a variety of Mastercard solutions and services. The data contextualization capabilities of Flybits, and the conversational capabilities of Kasisto enable personalized offerings and experiences to be delivered to the right customer at the right time, providing value to today’s digitally-savvy consumer while also helping issuers and merchants reduce costs.

“We are very pleased to be a key enabler of the Mastercard Contextual Engagement Solution, enabling Mastercard issuers and merchants to engage cardholders at the right time with highly personalized and relevant offers, services, and content,” said Dr. Hossein Rahnama, Founder and CEO of Flybits. “For example, delivering a movie related benefit reminder ahead of a popular film release to a cardholder who frequents the movies.”

“Conversational AI is changing the way customers and companies communicate and interact. We are thrilled to be part of the Mastercard Contextual Engagement Solution to deliver intelligent virtual assistants to better engage and enhance the cardholder experience,” says Zor Gorelov, CEO, Kasisto. “Kasisto’s differentiated digital conversation platform helps banks and merchants personalize how consumers explore and understand the rewards and benefits tied to their card.”

In the coming months, Mastercard will introduce additional solutions offered through the Mastercard Innovation Engine that will focus on further enabling bank and merchant partners to rapidly deliver best-in-class digital experiences to consumers. For issuers, a single connection to the Innovation Engine provides them continuous access to innovate and easily leverage new capabilities and solutions coming out of the platform.

Mastercard handles end-to-end sourcing and business operations with third parties and solution delivery for each solution developed by the Mastercard Innovation Engine, increasing speed to market.  The Mastercard Innovation Engine and Contextual Engagement Solution are available now to issuer and merchant clients in the United States.

The introduction of the Mastercard Innovation Engine follows the recent announcement of World and World Elite Mastercard product enhancements and is yet another example of how Mastercard is enabling issuers and merchants to continuously enhance and transform their consumer value propositions through pre-integrated digital partnerships and experiences.

About Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.