Using the sandbox and Mastercard’s latest A2A payments technology, banks and FIs will be able to test new flows, including retail and digital assets, across person to person, person to merchant, and business to business use cases.
Starting later this year, Mastercard will provide access to its fifth generation A2A instant payments technology via a sandbox, according to a press release. Offering an environment for UK banks and financial institutions to experiment, validate and collaborate across new ways to pay and modernize the UK’s A2A payment ecosystem using Mastercard’s innovative payment technology.
„For example, the sandbox will enable banks and fintechs to implement a “5-leg credit transfer” with confirmation of funds, meaning that a consumer can make a retail real-time payment with the merchant getting instant confirmation of payment. This functionality is a significant step forward in bringing new ways to pay to the UK market and increasing merchant and consumer choice.” – Mastercard explained.
The sandbox will adhere to modern international ISO20022 standards, which provides several new advantages thanks to the rich data provided, including improvements in the amount of data that can flow alongside the transaction. The rich data allows for new ways to significantly enhance fraud detection and reduction, as well as future advancements.
Toward the end of last year, the UK government published the National Payments Vision (NPV), which outlines its ambition for the payments sector and how to boost economic growth through the adoption of modern services. The A2A sandbox shows how this can be possible, allowing for banks and fintechs to prepare for the next stage in the UK’s payments evolution.
Modernization of the UK’s A2A infrastructure comes with significant potential benefits. According to an EY report, published in March 2025, noted that there was a potential £9bn uplift to GDP annually. The sandbox is a first step in showing how this growth can be unlocked, providing the proving ground for new infrastructure capabilities and new products.
As well as the development of new features the sandbox will also offer insight into the future, and what a new account-to-account infrastructure can do for the UK. Built on Mastercard’s Next Generation A2A Instant Payment platform, this cloud-ready solution gives powerful, but simple, front-end tools with a clean user experience and developer portal while the back-end offers powerful functionality with API access to simplify integration.
Speaking about the possibilities of the sandbox, Peter Reynolds, Executive Vice President, Mastercard Real Time Payments said, “Account-to-account payments in the UK are already an enormous part of the UK’s financial landscape. The Mastercard A2A instant payments Sandbox opens our innovative technology to our partners to develop and test new potential services. Alongside the UK government’s National Payments Vision, we’re setting out a bold vision of the future in A2A real-time payments”.
Jana Mackintosh, UK Finance Managing Director for Payments and Innovation said, “It’s always exciting to see innovation coming to the market. Mastercard’s sandbox demonstration at our Digital Innovation Summit is a great example of how we can bring the National Payments Vision to life. I hope we’ll see many more industry-led solutions that help drive progress across our payments landscape.”
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„To be honest I think that Sinaia, your conference, is much better then Davos.”
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