Mastercard Acquires Mexican PaaS Platform Arcus FI

Mastercard has acquired a Mexican Payment-as-a-Service platform Arcus FI (Arcus), to enable the introduction of Mastercard Bill Pay to Latin America and expand support of Real-Time Payments in this region.

With offices in New York and Mexico City, Arcus is focused on helping to enable bill pay and cash-in, cash-out services for some of the biggest billers, retailers, fintechs and traditional financial institutions in the U.S. and Mexico, with expansion into Latin America. Its flagship solution, the Arcus Pay Network, has access to the largest retailers and direct connection with many of the largest billers in Mexico.

With Mastercard Bill Pay, consumers are able to view, manage and pay their household and other personal bills from within their preferred financial service provider’s app — securely, conveniently and with full control. The solution is already live with banks and credit unions and a network of 135,000 billers in the US.

In addition, for billers, Mastercard Bill Pay can eliminate the cost of mailing paper bills and processing cash and checks, offers better visibility of payment status, and helps them reconcile payments to customer accounts. Financial institutions benefit from increased relevance in their customers’ daily lives, resulting in increased engagement and additional services and increased customer engagement.

“The past year has shown how critical digital solutions are for people and businesses across the region,” said Laura Cruz, division president for Mexico and Central America at Mastercard. "With the addition of the Arcus team, we will enhance existing payment experiences and create new opportunities to address every day needs by connecting more people to the digital economy.”

Shortly before, Fazzaco reported that Mastercard has completed the acquisition of Aiia​, a European leading open banking platform, advancing its existing distribution channels, technology, data practices and global multi-rail and open banking strategy.