Mastercard announced it has completed its acquisition of Aiia, a Danish open banking technology provider that offers single and secure API access to banks and fintech companies, and enables users to easily perform account-to-account payments.

Details of the deal which was announced in September was not disclosed.

The acquisition of Aiia is said to further advance Mastercard’s existing distribution channels, technology, data practices and global multi-rail and open banking strategy.

Aiia’s open banking platforms and infrastructure – including its strong API connectivity to over 2,700 banks across Europe – enables Mastercard to continue to build applications through a developer-first approach for a variety of financial institutions, merchants, peer-to-peer networks and fintechs globally.

At scale, Mastercard’s suite of end-to-end open banking capabilities will continue to enable multi-rail payment flows, enhanced consumer authentication and fraud management, and delivery of analytics and consulting services.

The deal continues enhance Mastercard‘s position in offering seamless choice and activation across multiple payment types, including cards, account-to-account, push payments and blockchain, enabled in many cases through the power of open banking connectivity.

“Open banking empowers consumers and small businesses to use their financial data to expand access to financial services, such as demonstrating their financial wellness to increase access to credit, aggregating financial data to improve personal financial management, and to more seamlessly set up and manage payments.

 

Together, we’ll continue to build upon our API connectivity and our multi-rail strategy to enable greater consumer access, control and choice around the world.”

commented Craig Vosburg, Chief Product Officer, Mastercard.

This article first appeared on Fintech News Switzerland.