Banking-as-a-service platform solarisBank has entered a strategic agreement with MasterCard to use the card scheme's global infrastructure to develop new payments modules for digital startups.
Founded in 2015 by Marko Wenthin, formerly of Deutsche Bank and Andreas Bittner, an ex-MD at core banking supplier Avaloq, solarisBank received a banking license from German regulatory body BaFin in March.
The company, which provides a set of plug-and-play APIs to power banking services for fintech startups, has now achieved Principal Membership status with MasterCard, providing access to the card scheme's entire product portfolio.
Both companies have agreed to collaborate on the development of banking modules for the solarisBank platform. In a first step, the Debit MasterCard - combining a debit card and credit card in a single product - will be brought to the solarisBank platform.
In the following months, wallet services and mobile payment will be added as further banking bricks, says solarisBank's Wenthin.
"In the future, transactions such as payments will function exclusively using smartphones, wearables or the Internet of Things; the plastic card we are familiar with is only the beginning," he says. The Mastercard of the future will serve as an information hub, allowing customers to perform various types of transactions in addition to payments. Together with Mastercard, we plan to drive this development and supply it to our partners."