Mastercard announces the Open Banking for Account Opening Program in the U.S.

Introducing new core benefit program for select U.S. debit and prepaid products, designed to streamline and secure account opening. General availability of the Open Banking for Account Opening program is expected in the first half of 2024.

Today Mastercard announced the Open Banking for Account Opening program, providing a foundational set of open banking products as a core benefit to Mastercard consumer and small business debit issuers as well as consumer prepaid issuers in the U.S. „The program improves the digital account opening process by verifying account ownership, lowering account abandonment, reducing non-sufficient fund (NSF) returns, and minimizing manual entry of payment credentials.” – according to the press release.

A study from Insider Intelligence found that Gen Z mobile banking adoption continues to rise sharply at 12.4% year over year, from 20.7 million in 2020 to hit 47.8 million by 2026. To meet the demands of today’s increasingly digital world, Mastercard will provide participating U.S. issuers who opt into the program free access to Mastercard’s Account Owner Verification, Account Detail Verification and Account Balance Check solutions when used to support digital account opening of a Mastercard branded consumer and small business debit and general-purpose reloadable consumer prepaid product. 

„Mastercard Open Banking draws on the safe exchange of consumer-permissioned data, leveraging industry standards and machine learning to support a seamless and secure digital account opening experience.” the company explains.

With Open Banking for Account Opening, Mastercard issuers can do the following: 

. Confidently verify account ownership 

. Lower abandonment and inactive accounts through rapid account funding and a more seamless user experience 

. Reduce costly NSF returns with real-time balance checks. 

“Today’s digital consumer is increasingly opening bank accounts online, gravitating towards the convenience and efficiency of the experience versus more traditional manual methods,” said Silvana Hernandez, Executive Vice President, Product and Engineering, North America, Mastercard. “The Open Banking for Account Opening program provides another entry point to the digital economy through valuable and secure experiences that lean into the power of consumer-permissioned data.”