Mastercard Move partner program: a practical guide

Short answer: the Mastercard Move partner program is a global programme for financial institutions, technology partners, integrators and digital businesses that build on Mastercard Move, the company's portfolio of money-movement services. Partners get integration resources, go-to-market and sales support, co-marketing and a listing in Mastercard's partner directory. Joining makes sense if you already offer, or plan to offer, payouts, remittances or account-to-card transfers and want to reach Mastercard's network of card, account, wallet and cash endpoints through a single relationship.

This guide summarises what Mastercard publishes about Mastercard Move and its partner programme, who it is for, how to evaluate it and which alternatives exist. Programme details change and differ by region, so treat Mastercard's own pages and your account team as the final word.

What Mastercard Move is

Mastercard Move is the umbrella name for Mastercard's money-movement capabilities, as opposed to classic card acceptance. Mastercard describes it as reaching nearly 10 billion endpoints worldwide, across cards, bank accounts, digital wallets and cash. Two platforms do most of the work:

• Mastercard Send: domestic and cross-border transfers to and from card accounts, used for push-to-card payouts, wallet funding and person-to-person transfers.
• Mastercard Cross-Border Services: transfers to bank accounts, mobile wallets, cards and cash pickup locations in more than 190 countries and territories through one API integration.

Typical use cases include person-to-person remittances, business-to-person payouts (gig-worker earnings, insurance claims, marketplace seller payouts, refunds), person-to-business payments such as bill pay and tuition, and business-to-business supplier payments in eligible markets.

What the partner programme offers

According to Mastercard's partner pages, the programme is designed to help partners connect to Move services and grow faster. The benefits typically listed are:

• Integration resources: access to APIs, documentation, sandbox environments and pre-built flows, including design guides for white-label user journeys.
• Go-to-market support: sales enablement materials and training so your team can position Move-based products.
• Co-marketing: joint campaigns, events and promotional opportunities.
• Visibility: a listing in the Mastercard Move partner directory, where financial institutions and businesses look for integrators and service providers.

Mastercard does not publish a single public fee schedule for the programme. Commercial terms for using Send or Cross-Border Services depend on your role, volumes, corridors and the customer institution involved.

Who the programme is for

Mastercard groups participants broadly into:

• Financial institutions: banks and non-bank financial institutions that originate transfers for their customers.
• Technology partners and integrators: processors, core-banking vendors, payout platforms and system integrators that embed Move services in their products.
• Aggregators and digital players: companies that package Mastercard-integrated solutions for fintechs, merchants and platforms.

If you are a merchant that simply needs to pay out to customers, you will usually access Move through a licensed bank, processor or payout provider rather than joining the partner programme yourself. Browse payout providers and cross-border payment providers to find intermediaries that already work with card and account payouts.

How Move fits common business models

The same building blocks look different depending on who uses them:

• Marketplaces and gig platforms: pay sellers, drivers or freelancers to their debit cards or bank accounts shortly after a job is completed, instead of waiting for a weekly batch. Push-to-card speed is often the main selling point.
• Insurers and lenders: disburse claims and loans directly to a customer's card or account, reducing cheque handling and manual bank transfers.
• Remittance and wallet apps: let customers send money abroad to bank accounts, wallets or cash pickup points through one integration rather than dozens of local partners.
• Banks and neobanks: add international transfers or card-to-card transfers to their apps under their own brand, using white-label flows.
• B2B platforms: pay suppliers across borders where the corridor is eligible, alongside traditional correspondent banking.

In each case the partner owns the customer experience and the compliance programme, while Mastercard provides the network and the endpoint reach.

Compliance and operational responsibilities

Joining a partner programme does not transfer regulatory duties. Expect to handle, directly or through a sponsor:

• Licensing: money remittance, payment institution or e-money permissions in the markets where you originate transfers.
• KYC and sanctions screening: of senders and, where required, recipients, with records kept for audits.
• Transaction monitoring: rules for unusual patterns, velocity limits and suspicious activity reporting.
• Customer disclosures: clear information on fees, exchange rates and delivery times, as required by consumer-protection rules in many countries.
• Exception handling: returns, rejected transfers, wrong beneficiary details and refunds, with clear ownership between you, your sponsor and Mastercard.

How to join: a practical sequence

1. 1.Clarify your role. Are you an originating institution, a technology partner or an aggregator? Your role determines which agreements, licences and sponsorships you need.
2. 2.Check regulatory fit. Sending money on behalf of others is a regulated activity in most markets. Make sure you or your sponsor hold the necessary licences (see payment processing without a licence for why this matters).
3. 3.Map corridors and endpoints. List the countries, currencies and endpoint types (card, account, wallet, cash) your customers need, and confirm Move's coverage for each.
4. 4.Apply through Mastercard. Use the "Become a partner" form on Mastercard's partner programme page or contact your Mastercard account team.
5. 5.Integrate and certify. Build against the sandbox, complete testing and any certification steps, then go live corridor by corridor.
6. 6.Plan go-to-market. Use the co-marketing and directory listing once you have live, supportable use cases.

Evaluation checklist

Before committing engineering time, ask:

• Which Move products (Send, Cross-Border Services) does my use case need, and in which corridors?
• Who is the licensed originator, and who carries compliance obligations such as sanctions screening and AML?
• What are the funding and settlement mechanics, and how much prefunding is required? See prefunding and liquidity providers.
• How is FX priced and disclosed? Our article on the true cost of cross-border FX explains what to compare.
• What are the service levels for speed, returns and failed transfers?
• How will exceptions, refunds and customer complaints be handled across the chain?

Alternatives to Mastercard Move

The market for money movement is crowded, and many businesses use more than one network. Options commonly compared with Mastercard Move include:

• Visa Direct: Visa's push-payment network for cards, accounts and wallets.
• Cross-border payout networks: for example Thunes, TerraPay and Nium, which connect to bank accounts and mobile wallets in many markets.
• FX and collection platforms: such as Currencycloud and Payoneer, oriented to businesses and marketplaces.
• Local real-time rails: domestic instant-payment systems accessed through banks or payment orchestration platforms.

The right choice depends on the corridors you serve, the endpoint mix your customers prefer and how much of the compliance and liquidity work you want to own.

FAQ

Is the Mastercard Move partner program free?

Mastercard does not publish a public fee for joining the programme. Transaction pricing for Move services is agreed commercially and depends on your role, volumes and corridors.

Can a small fintech join?

Mastercard lists technology partners, integrators and digital players alongside banks. Smaller fintechs often start by integrating Move through a sponsoring bank or processor that already participates.

What is the difference between Mastercard Send and Cross-Border Services?

Mastercard Send focuses on transfers to and from card accounts, domestically and cross-border. Cross-Border Services focuses on sending money to bank accounts, wallets, cards and cash pickup in more than 190 countries and territories.

Where can I find Move partners?

Mastercard maintains a partner directory on its website. On Nominal hub you can research payout providers and cross-border providers and contact them directly; Nominal hub is a directory, not an intermediary.