• Exclusive six-year direct issuing partnership with Mastercard for prepaid and debit cards in Australia and New Zealand.
• New agreement strengthens Change Financial and Mastercard’s long-standing relationship in the US market.
• Change Financial provides mid-sized banks and fintechs with a faster path to market for prepaid and debit card products.

Australian based global fintech and payments as a service (PaaS) provider, Change Financial (Change), today announced an exclusive six-year direct issuing partnership agreement with Mastercard in Australia and New Zealand. Under the agreement Change will begin issuing prepaid and debit cards in both countries from Q4 FY22.

Change CEO Alastair Wilkie said, “This agreement strengthens our long-standing relationship with Mastercard in the US, and transaction processing for existing clients.

“Our partnership with Mastercard will deliver direct issuing capabilities for our Australian and New Zealand clients, giving them a faster path to market for innovative prepaid and debit card products.”

Change uses innovative and scalable technology solutions to provide tailored payment solutions, card issuing and testing to banks and fintechs. The company manages and processes more than 16 million virtual, credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide. Change’s payments technology and management services are used by over 147 clients in 41 countries. Clients include BDO Unibank, ME Bank and eftpos Australia.

Dan Martin, Vice President, Digital Partnerships, Australasia, Mastercard said, “There’s a significant opportunity to provide Australian and New Zealand’s mid-sized banks and fintechs with the tools and services to best meet the changing expectations of a more digital world. This partnership brings the best of our respective strengths, including Mastercard’s global payment network and technology, to enable Change’s customers to create and launch prepaid and debit card programs seamlessly, safely and securely.”

This agreement follows Change’s recent launch of Vertexon, a payments platform with host multitenancy and dedicated PaaS platform for Australian and New Zealand clients. Vertexon seamlessly integrates with a businesses’ core systems enabling them to easily deliver physical and digital card solutions to their customers as well as offering other features such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), transaction processing and integrated loyalty programmes.

Change is currently being onboarded on to the Mastercard Network to complete testing to onboard customers onto their PaaS platform from Q4 2022.

• Change’s direct issuing capability follows partnership with Mastercard in Australia and New Zealand.

• New capability allows clients to reduce operational burden and create new lines of revenue.

• Ability to tap into direct issuance is a key strategy for smaller operators as they go on the offensive with digital payments.

SYDNEY, 15 March 2022: Australian based global fintech and payments as a service (PaaS) provider, Change Financial (Change), today announced the launch of direct issuing services for card programs in Australia and New Zealand. This offering will enable bank and fintech clients in Australia and New Zealand to deliver digital and physical prepaid and debit cards to their customers.

Change CEO Alastair Wilkie said, “Change’s direct card issuing capability allows clients in Australia and New Zealand to offer virtual and physical cards, controlling expenses, reducing operational burden, and creating new lines of revenue.

We can help small to medium sized banks and fintechs compete in a highly competitive market without the operational expense. In fact, we are changing the dynamic by giving them the payment solutions needed to level the playing field against the bigger banks and competitors,” added Mr Wilke.

As the demand for online payments in Australia and New Zealand continues to rise, small to medium sized banks and fintechs are under pressure to innovate and keep loyal customers engaged. The ability to tap into direct issuance is a key strategy for many smaller operators as they go on the offensive.

Traditionally these financial institutions have had few options for card issuing and could not compete with the functionality and technical richness offered by major issuers.

“We have seen in the Oceania region, and specifically in New Zealand, agency services from the major banks restricting the use of digital payment options like Apple Pay to the likes of credit unions and mutual banks.  Change can replace these traditional agency service providers to deliver modern solutions that retain and attract customers to smaller banks and fintechs,” Mr Wilke explained.

Change uses innovative and scalable technology to provide tailored payment solutions, card issuing and testing to banks and fintechs. The company manages and processes more than 16 million virtual, credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide. Change’s payments technology and management services are used by over 147 clients in 41 countries. Clients include BDO Unibank, ME Bank and eftpos Australia.

Change’s Vertexon PaaS platform seamlessly integrates with a businesses’ core systems enabling them to easily deliver physical and digital card solutions to their customers as well as offering other features such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), transaction processing for all major schemes, including Mastercard, Visa, Amex, JCB and UnionPay and integrated loyalty programmes.

“Our clients outsource the operational work involved in direct card issuing to us so they can receive the scale benefits without the operational burden. Cards, whether digital or physical are a scale business. You need some way to offer and manage that and we can help,” Mr Wilkie said.

With its recently acquired Financial Services Provider (FSP) approval in New Zealand and with its Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) application underway, Change also takes on the burden of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certification with the schemes, technology platform and processing, lowering the barrier for entry for clients in Australia and New Zealand.

By outsourcing issuance, banks and fintechs can focus on their core business and leverage the loyalty they’re known for, generating more customer satisfaction while creating new revenue and data streams. And, they don’t have to worry about losing customers to other financial institutions trying to cross-sell competing banking services.

Change’s direct issuing can deliver card solutions for fintechs looking to add card payments to enhance their financial product offerings.  Small to medium banks and non-bank deposit takers (NBDTs) now have a partner to deliver modern digital cards to their customers without having to partner with larger competitors.

Award winning cloud banking platform Mambu and global payments as a service (PaaS) provider Change Financial (Change), today announced a partnership to deliver market leading digital banking and payment capabilities in Australia and New Zealand.

The partnership will see Change’s Vertexon PaaS platform, which enables banks and fintechs to deliver physical and digital card payments and processing, added to Mambu’s application programming interface (API)-driven cloud banking platform. With today’s customers expecting on-demand access to multiple digital payments and modern banking experiences, Mambu and Change will leverage an ecosystem approach, working together to deliver fast-to-market SaaS solutions to Australian and New Zealand financial institutions. The partnership will allow seamless integration of adding prepaid, debit and credit card and processing capabilities as well as digital card payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay to Mambu’s platform. Change’s solutions include Buy Now Pay Later features for cards and transaction processing for all major schemes, including Mastercard, Visa, Amex, JCB and UnionPay.

Mambu Managing Director Asia Pacific, Myles Bertrand said, “Mambu’s partnership with Change strengthens our digital payments capabilities, whilst enabling Change to connect its customers to our market leading cloud-native core banking solution.

Change’s product roadmap and focus on the provision of seamless digital payments is a powerful addition to Mambu’s composable cloud banking foundation. We see a great deal of synergy in this partnership, and we’re excited about the opportunities it will bring to our customers.”

Change Chief Product Officer, Vinnie D’Alessandro, said, “The strategic partnership with Mambu supports our growth objectives for the Australian and New Zealand markets.  Our card payments and processing technologies are essential for a modern digital banking experience, and our combined solutions with Mambu’s composable banking platform will deliver innovative payment and digital banking solutions to our end customers.”

Mambu General Manager Australia and New Zealand, Paul Apolony, added “Change is a leading provider in the global payments space, like Mambu they’re committed to digital transformation using SaaS solutions and a customer-centric approach. We believe our combined functionalities will enable customers of both organisations to shift to a high-velocity operating model with minimal effort.”

Mambu will also be working with Change to make their payment emulation and testing solution, PaySim, available to clients. PaySim allows financial institutions to simulate and test the full payment lifecycle of their systems including load and stress testing as well as ATM, POS and card scheme simulation.

“We look forward to leveraging the synergies this partnership brings to deliver agile and fast to market results for our customers,” Mr Apolony concluded. 

Mambu is the cloud banking platform where modern financial experiences are built. Launched in 2011 Mambu fast-tracks the design and build of nearly any type of financial offering for banks of all sizes, lenders, fintechs, retailers, telcos and more. Our unique composable approach means that independent components, systems, and connectors can be assembled in any configuration to meet business needs and end user demands. Mambu has 800 employees​ that support 200 customers in over 65 countries – including N26, BancoEstado, OakNorth, Raiffeisen Bank, ABN AMRO, Bank Islam and Orange Bank.

Learn more about Mambu at www.mambu.com

Change Financial (Change) is an experienced global fintech, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) providing tailored payment solutions, card issuing and testing to banks and fintechs. Partnering with over 147 clients across 41 countries Change delivers simple, flexible, and fast-to-market payment solutions.

Managing and processing over 16 million credit, debit, and prepaid cards worldwide, Change also provides the default standard for payments testing for many Australian companies, including Australia’s domestic card payment service eftpos.

Learn more about Change at www.changefinancial.com