The partnership gives banks using Mambu a direct connection to Mastercard Move as international payments remain difficult to build and operate across markets. 

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Cross-border payments have become easier to initiate, but the systems handling them have not necessarily become any simpler. A transfer that takes a few taps for a customer can still pass through several institutions, currencies, payment systems and regulatory checks before it reaches the recipient. Banks have spent years improving the customer-facing side of payments, while much of the work behind the scenes still depends on connections that have to be built, maintained and reconciled across different markets. 

Mambu and Mastercard are now addressing one part of that problem. The companies announced Tuesday that Mastercard Move will connect with Mambu's Intelligent Core, giving financial institutions using Mambu a pre-built route into Mastercard's cross-border money movement services. Banks will be able to add the capability to their digital banking products without having to develop a separate connection to Mastercard themselves. Mastercard says Move can reach more than 200 countries and territories and more than 150 currencies, with the available services and payout options depending on the market. 

Mastercard has been building Move through connections with banks and payment companies rather than expecting every institution to develop its own international payment network. The company recently announced a separate arrangement with Network International in Jordan, giving participating financial institutions, fintechs and payment providers access to domestic and international money movement through a single connection.  

“Despite advances in digital payments, moving money across borders remains complex and fragmented, with people and businesses expecting greater speed, transparency and certainty. Mastercard Move combines global reach with trusted money movement capabilities to help financial institutions meet those expectations,” said Pratik Khowala, Global Head of Transfer Solutions, Mastercard

Mambu has been moving further into payments as well. Its acquisition of French payments technology company Numeral in 2024 brought payment capabilities into the platform, and the company launched Mambu Payments the following year. In July 2026, it announced that it had become a certified Swift Business Connect Enabler, allowing financial institutions to connect to Swift's network through a managed cloud model without operating dedicated infrastructure themselves. Mambu's latest deal with Mastercard follows the same direction, with more payment connectivity being handled through the banking platform rather than built separately by each institution.  

“Adding cross-border payment capabilities shouldn’t require financial institutions to take on years of integration work or rethink their entire tech stack. By integrating Mambu’s Intelligent Core with Mastercard Move, we are giving our customers a simpler way to introduce these capabilities, accelerate time to market and continue building on the investments they’ve already made. That's the value of a composable foundation: it lets the Intelligent Core keep extending what financial institutions already trust, rather than replacing it,” said Fernando Zandona, CEO at Mambu

For banks, the attraction of the arrangement is fairly straightforward. International payments require connections to different systems and institutions, and adding another service can mean another piece of technology for a bank to integrate and maintain. A pre-built connection does not remove the regulatory or operational work involved in moving money between countries, but it can take some of the engineering burden away from the institution. 

Mambu and Mastercard are ultimately betting on a simple idea: banks will increasingly want to add payment services through technology they already have rather than take on another major integration project. The partnership does not change how international payments work from one market to another, but it gives Mambu customers another route into Mastercard's network without having to build that connection themselves. For banks trying to expand their payment offerings while keeping their existing technology in place, that is the more immediate story behind the deal. 

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