Mastercard Launches Move Commercial Payments for Near Real-Time B2B Cross-Border Transfers

Mastercard has launched Move Commercial Payments, a service enabling banks to facilitate near real-time commercial cross-border payments around the clock, positioning itself as a direct competitor to SWIFT in the B2B payments corridor.

The service provides predictable, transparent business-to-business transfers with real-time tracking, addressing longstanding pain points in corporate international payments where settlement times, fee transparency, and payment status visibility have frustrated treasury teams. Banks can offer the service to their corporate clients through existing banking relationships.

Move Commercial Payments operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, eliminating the delays caused by banking hours, time zones, and batch processing cycles that characterise traditional correspondent banking. Corporate payments that currently take one to three business days can be processed in near real time through the Mastercard network.

The announcement was made simultaneously in Beijing and Purchase, New York, reflecting the service's global ambition. Mastercard said the platform connects to a growing network of banks and payment endpoints worldwide, enabling cross-border commercial payments across multiple currencies.

The launch represents Mastercard's most direct challenge to SWIFT's dominance in cross-border commercial payments. While SWIFT has been upgrading its own infrastructure with initiatives including instant cross-border payments, Mastercard's entry introduces network-level competition in a market that has historically lacked alternatives for high-value B2B transfers.

Move Commercial Payments builds on Mastercard's existing cross-border payment capabilities, including its Move remittance platform and its acquisition of cross-border payment infrastructure through deals including the purchase of Transfast and payment network EBA Clearing partnerships.