Dive Brief:

• Mastercard has agreed to buy Minna Technologies, a Swedish subscription management services company, the card network said Tuesday in an online post. A spokesperson for Mastercard declined to say how much was paid for the acquisition.
• With help from Minna Technologies, Mastercard wants to create a central hub where customers can manage their subscriptions, review subscription transactions and connect customers to merchants offering loyalty rewards and other incentives to subscribers, the card network said.
• By providing a central place to manage subscriptions, Mastercard aims to cut involuntary subscription churn, reduce card blocks and create a better experience for customers, per the press release.

Dive Insight:

Minna Technologies works with banks to let consumers manage their subscriptions through embedded tools in bank apps and websites. Through the acquisition, Mastercard also seeks to streamline the consumer subscription experience as consumers add more subscriptions to their budgets in the coming years.

The company, which was founded in 2016, has had a headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, but operates in the U.S. and U.K. as well and also has a presence in India, according to its website. Its clients include the large Europe-based banks Lloyds Banking Group, ING and Swedbank.

Minna Technologies CEO Amanda Mesler said in a post on her LinkedIn page that the company would become part of Mastercard’s Ethoca unit, which focuses on fighting fraud and reducing chargebacks. Mesler, who is based in the U.K., also acknowledged on the company’s website that the acquisition still requires regulatory review.

Mastercard cited a Juniper Research report in its press release to point out that subscriptions worldwide are projected to reach 9.3 billion by 2028, up from 6.8 billion this year. The company also acknowledged in the release that consumers sometimes “struggle to find ways” to change, cancel or extend subscriptions.

That’s an issue that has concerned federal regulators, who are now scrutinizing how easy, or not, it is for consumers to cancel their subscriptions. In January 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a circular clarifying that companies that failed to clearly disclose their subscription service terms and get consent from customers could be violating the law.

That same month, the Federal Trade Commission held a hearing on a proposed rule that would require companies to simplify the process of opting out of automatic subscription renewals.

Aside from holding a hearing on the matter, the FTC has also taken action against companies that have made it difficult to cancel their subscriptions. In January, the agency settled with the cash advance company FloatMe for $3 million. The agency said that the company made it difficult for customers to cancel their monthly subscription fee and discriminated against customers who received government assistance.

In addition to bolstering its subscription services, Mastercard also made another recent acquisition to improve its cybersecurity operations. Last month, the company agreed to buy Recorded Future, a cybersecurity company, for $2.65 billion. The two companies have previously worked together on an AI-powered service that notifies banks when fraudsters have compromised credit or debit cards.

“At the end of the day, all of us involved in subscriptions – merchants, financial institutions, payment networks and others – can collectively create a win-win approach for each of us and most importantly, for the consumer,” Ethoca Executive Vice President Gaurav Mittal wrote in the blog post. “When we come together to collaborate and innovate, we can help simplify a complex digital ecosystem, deliver better experiences and help grow the economy.”