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

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.

Comments

Re:It means

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

A new feed for the NSA

[Alain Williams]

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.

All about the information

[GrahamJ]

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.

Re:Brexit loons will call it "investment"

[uvajed_ekil]

"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?