Dive Brief:

• The no. 2 card company Mastercard is teaming with Interos to provide risk monitoring tools aimed at helping financial institutions spot cyber, financial, geopolitical, operational and other risks in their relationships with businesses and merchants, the companies announced in a press release Tuesday.
• The Interos system for assessing risks uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify, monitor and model business relationships. It assigns a risk score to alert organizations about potential vulnerabilities, according to the press release.
• Interos’ software currently monitors more than 345 million entities and 18 billion business relationships, per the announcement. The Washington, D.C.-based company operates a global business.

Dive Insight:

Through Mastercard’s partnership with Interos, the payments provider appears to be targeting businesses that can’t manage their risks on their own. Citing research from Interos in its press release, the company noted that only 11% of organizations continuously check for third-party risks. And per Mastercard’s research, 63% of organizations said they are prioritizing addressing third-party risks.

“The threat landscape is evolving rapidly and financial institutions are being exposed to potential disruption across multiple dimensions,” Mastercard Executive Vice President Johan Gerber, who oversees cyber and security products, said in the release. “External risks are becoming more sophisticated and complex. Our partnership with Interos makes it simpler for financial institutions to continuously evaluate risk, helping advance security and trust in the digital ecosystem.”

Besides partnering with Interos to integrate risk management technology, Purchase, New York-based Mastercard has also partnered with other fintech startups to enhance its offerings for businesses. Earlier this month, the company entered a five-year international partnership with Zeta, a banking and card processing startup. The two will launch a platform for card issuance, payments, buy now-pay later loans and risk management, among other features, per a company press release. In February, Mastercard also teamed up with Flowcast and Highnote to introduce a credit card tailored to small and mid-sized businesses. 

Also this month, Mastercard unveiled its European Technology Hub in Dublin, Ireland, expanding on the company’s initial 2008 investment in the region. At the hub, the company will gather technologists with expertise in payments security, APIs, and other areas. The company aims to bring more than 2,000 employees into the space by 2025, up from its current total of 975. 

These collaborations come after Mastercard outlined its payments ambitions in late 2021. The company said it expects its card business to grow 9% annually over the next few years, but it plans to increase its disbursements, remittances, business-to-business accounts payable and consumer bill payment divisions.

Given that the payments sector is expected to grow in the coming years, more anti-fraud companies are emerging to deal with the increasing problem of digital payments risks. A 2021 report from Researchandmarkets.com estimates that the digital payments market will grow to $11.29 trillion by 2026.