US-based financial institution Citizens has partnered Mastercard as its exclusive payments network across its credit, debit, and commercial portfolios and its US services provider. Having common values and vision, Citizens and Mastercard have the goal of providing access, inclusion, and innovation to the communities they serve.

By enhancing the Citizens partnership and becoming their exclusive payments provider across all product portfolios, Mastercard supports the company’s advocating of financial inclusion, and is set to bring new products, services, and capabilities to support the proposition that Citizens provides to consumers and businesses, as per a Mastercard official’s statement. As Citizens aims to develop new and innovative customer-centric capabilities in line with customers’ expectations around payments, which are rapidly increasing, the company believes the extended Mastercard partnership would enable them to accelerate their market position and provide to customers ‘industry-leading solutions and experiences’. Partnership details and how it aims to support and strengthen US communities Mastercard and Citizens together are set to enable consumers and businesses with greater financial access, benefits, and experiences.

As detailed in the press release, Citizens will leverage Mastercard’s network, technology, and services for the development of innovative new products and features, looking to support consumer and business payments offerings. Based on information provided in the announcement, the collaboration between the two is set to do the following: Empower small businesses: leveraging unique and specialised tools and resources, Citizens will work with Mastercard in supporting the health and growth of small businesses in the communities they serve; Increase financial access: by making use of Mastercard’s Open Banking technology, Citizens will be enabled to provide consumers and businesses with increased financial access and control over their data; Deliver trust: with Mastercard’s digital identity solutions, Citizens’ consumers and business customers will be able to benefit from authentication and fraud mitigation tools; Accelerate innovation: the two companies are set to collaborate and foster advancements in payments technologies, fraud prevention tools, and Open Banking so that they benefit consumers in the communities they live and work in. Commercial digitisation: Citizens will leverage Mastercard’s commercial solution to optimise and simplify business-to-business payments in an intelligent manner, for today’s digital environment; Scale inclusive payment experiences: having a common goal in providing choice and optionality to consumers, the companies are set to partner to drive inclusive growth across channels and products for customers.

  Connect Citizens customers to experiences such as exclusive access to events and opportunities to take part in purpose-driven initiatives. Furthermore, additional details regarding the partnerships and services availability, including new customer cards details, are set to be released later in 2023. Citizens is a financial institution with USD 226.

7 billion in assets as of December 2022. The company provides a wide range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations, and institutions. In Consumer Banking, the company offers an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a full-service customer contact centre, and approximately 3,400 ATMs and over 1,100 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia.

Its Consumer Banking products and services include banking, lending, savings, wealth management, and small business offerings. On the other hand, its Commercial Banking solutions offer financial products and solutions of the likes of lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. .