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MasterCard Is Buying the Core of the British Payments Infrastructure (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the big-whale-meets-big-shark dept.

Mastercard has agreed to purchase a controlling stake in VocalLink, the payments processor that handles most payroll and household bill processing in the UK. The American payment giant will be paying up to $1.14 billion. Fortune reports: According to MasterCard MA, the deal would create "the first true combination of the traditional person-to-merchant cards business with a clearing business." That is, of course, presuming it clears regulatory scrutiny. VocaLink runs Link, the network that provides interoperability between British ATMs, as well as BACS, the clearing house for payments between bank accounts, and Faster Payments, the inter-bank transfer system for Internet and telephone-based payments.FastCompany explains what this could mean for MasterCard users.

17 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. It means by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    It means that if you have a dispute on your credit card they'll take it out of your salary without any commie shit like going through the courts, because disruptive.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:It means by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Okay ... this Fine Article is about MasterCard buying a stake in VocalLink. Now, the last line in the summary says "FastCompany explains what this could mean for MasterCard users." However; the link goes to "https://news.fastcompany.com/what-does-paypals-new-deal-with-visa-mean-for-users-4014697" Unless they're using URL steganography, the link is something about paypal and visa users. What gives?

    2. Re:It means by someone1234 · · Score: 1

      It is not VocalLink, just VocaLink (VOCA)

      --
      Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
  2. Gosh I'm so glad by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 1

    that cash exists (still).

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Brexit loons will call it "investment" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "See, international investors keep investing in the UK, even after we've decided to leave the EU."

    1. Re:Brexit loons will call it "investment" by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 2

      "See, international investors keep investing in the UK, even after we've decided to leave the EU."

      Not sure of your angle, and I don't know the ins and outs of British payment systems, but the price of just over a billion dollars makes it appear to be an intriguing investment for MasterCard. Of course if the UK's economy completely tanks it wouldn't look like such a good investment, but if VocalLink is as big as I think it is this sure looks like a bargain from where I sit.

      Maybe the prevailing domestic concern (on your side of the pond) is not continued "investment" as much as national assets being sold off, if I'm reading it right?

      --
      This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
    2. Re:Brexit loons will call it "investment" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Maybe the prevailing domestic concern (on your side of the pond) is not continued "investment" as much as national assets being sold off, if I'm reading it right?

      Considering that the company responsible for the majority of processors worldwide has been British up till now and soon won't be, and considering our experience in the 1980's, I think we might just be a bit justified in having a little concern about this. Imagine Germany or some other US Ally tried to buy Intel or Apple?

    3. Re: Brexit loons will call it "investment" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No,your right,the great British sell off still continues as fast as they can find buyers,arm was flooged off cheaply last week,every single large energy/water supplier is German or French etc etc.
      Be a systems doesn't exist in the UK anymore,sold off cheap,and everyone or anything useful moved to America..
      No matter what it is,no matter how vital to the national interests of the UK,if someone offers to buy it,our governments and private companies will stick out their fat greedy hands to take their cut of the sale price.
      We are now totally reliant for absutely everything for our defence on America,we cannot even cast a hull for a tank,we will be forced to buy in from America or possibly Germany.
      Aircraft industry doesn't exist,we build a few bits for airbus,that's about it.
      Our navy has about 10 real,but small warships,everything else is second hand ex civilian boats,like roro car ferries.
      You name it,it can be bought,Google are busy bribeing/lobbying for access to the whole of the uk's population of medical data from our national health service,while spouting shite about it being secure,and honestly,we won't do anything dodgy with all that deeply personal knowledge,honest injun..
      If you have the cash,you can buy it.
      I'm just waiting to be sold as a slave to someone,we have already been stay on by our own supposed ruling elite so many times already,we have an open door policy for anyone that can get a foot onto the British mainland.
      Soon,the only thing they will have left to sell will be our actual bodies for slavery..
      Although some will say that is no better than we deserve because they live in the past and think that generations many times removed should pay for supposed crimes fro. the past,forgetting that black on black African slave trade existed 4000 years ago,just as it did everywhere,it wasn't a British invention,we just did it better,for a very short time,then the Americans took over from us as the chief villain for everyone to blame for every percieved ill in the world...

  4. Re:Bresell by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 1

    Well, given that the UK hasn't formally requested to leave the EU yet, wouldn't it be funny if Brussels launched an antitrust investigation into the Mastercard deal, as a parting gift?

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  5. A new feed for the NSA by Alain+Williams · · Score: 3, Informative

    what little they were not getting anyway ... so more of my financial transactions (I am a Brit) will be copied over the pond to the NSA.

    1. Re:A new feed for the NSA by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 1

      I'm not familiar with the phrase "curry-laden shithole," whether in reference to the UK, or to England or otherwise. Is that a racist thing? Sorry, I'm much better at spotting racism here in the good ol' U S of A due to being more accustomed to it and it generally not being very clever (not that "curry-laden" leaves me completely bewildered, obviously).

      --
      This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
    2. Re:A new feed for the NSA by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 1

      what little they were not getting anyway ... so more of my financial transactions (I am a Brit) will be copied over the pond to the NSA.

      Make no mistake about it, the NSA has access to damn near everything going on in friendly nations already. Whether through negotiated channels or unsanctioned spying, the NSA knows what goes on in the UK, Germany, France, Canada, and many other countries. When it comes to their stated mission of security, and their failures, the problem is information overload, not a lack of information.

      --
      This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
    3. Re:A new feed for the NSA by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Hay, this is is taking back control! We now have the freedom to sell our infrastructure off to whoever we like!

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:A new feed for the NSA by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I'm in England, and I've never seen that term before. Maybe it's local?

      We do eat a lot of curry though.

    5. Re:A new feed for the NSA by mjwx · · Score: 1

      As ashamed as I am to admit it, the author sounds Australian.

      Probably a bogan (En_UK: Chav, En_US: Trailer trash) who proclaims to hate foreigners and "Effnicks" but jets off to Bali twice a year in his singlet (wife beater) for a Bintang fuelled display of douchebaggery. Apparently this makes him "well travelled".

      Disclosure: I'm a skip living in pommyland, both nations have pluses and minuses to living and working there..

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  6. All about the information by GrahamJ · · Score: 2

    This sounds to me like a play for user/transaction data. They already use such data for marketing purposes with companies like Facebook so I guess the more the merrier.

  7. Dear editors by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

    What does the link at the bottom have to do with the story?

    Stop it.