Mastercard has now collaborated with R3, a blockchain firm, to work on a cross-border payment solution.

As per a press release by Mastercard on September 1^st, the two companies are planning to test a new blockchain-based international payment solution. The system is expected to work on connecting global quicker payments ecosystems, banks, and schemes.

Multiple ways to move money

According to the release, the announcement is a part of Mastercard’s plans for improving its international payments infrastructure, strengthening on its acquisition of Transfast, a global payments firm, earlier this year.

The collaboration with R3 is Mastercard’s multi-rail strategy, which assists customers to choose how their transactions should be carried out.

Commenting on the development, Peter Klein, Mastercard’s executive vice president of new payment platforms, said:

“Developing a new and better cross-border B2B payments solution by improving worldwide connectivity in the account-to-account space is central to Mastercard’s ambition. Our goal is to deliver global payment infrastructure choice and connectivity as demonstrated through our recent strategic acquisitions and partnerships, including our relationship with R3.”

Mastercard’s interest in blockchain

The collaboration is an update on the previous relations between the two involved firms, which was also exhibited earlier this month when Mastercard joined the Marco Polo Network by R3’s Corda platform for trade finance, as reported earlier by Blockchain Magazine.

Additionally, Mastercard had also displayed interest to enter the cryptocurrency space in August, when the company was reportedly collaborating with a crypto wallet space for cryptocurrency-related and blockchain product development.