With Pay by Bank, Mastercard and Worldpay are making it easy for shoppers in the U.K. to pay directly from their bank account when purchasing goods and services online. The technology, originally developed by Zapp (which was a division of VocaLink, a company Mastercard acquired in 2016) is expected to be available to customers of HSBC in the second half of 2018. Additional customers will be added later in the year, with new merchants to be added starting early in 2019.

“This is the latest way we’re able to deliver on consumer’s expectations, whether they’re shopping online or paying for utilities,” Mark Barnett, president of Mastercard U.K., Ireland, Nordics, and Baltics. “(Pay by Bank) is set to play a big role in U.K. digital commerce as more banks and merchants offer this as a payment option to millions of their customers.”

The initiative and partnership is also likely to play a big role in Mastercard’s ability to participate in the U.K. debit market, where Visa is common. The agreement will also enable Mastercard to leverage Worldpay’s strong market share in the U.K.

“Through this partnership, Worldpay and Mastercard will help expand payment acceptance options for U.K. consumers and retailers by leveraging account-to-account payments technology with Mastercard’s Pay by Bank app,” Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for Worldpay Kevin McCarten said. “This – combined with our joint efforts in making digital payments even more convenient and secure globally – creates a powerful partnership that benefits all payments stakeholders.”

Some of the technical features of the new solution include support for EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC), a framework that provides a consistent payment experience for consumers, as well as Mastercard’s Digital Enablement Service which uses a token for enhanced payment security as opposed to a card’s primary 16-digit account number. Worldpay will also take advantage of Mastercard’s MoneySend to enable merchants to get settlement payments to Mastercard debit cards faster.

Mastercard partnered with Vipera for a demonstration of SME Pay at FinovateEurope 2018. SME Pay is a mobile payment solution geared specifically toward small business owners. The technology gives business operators the ability to control how and when company payment cards are used, and includes capture features to make record-keeping and expense reporting easier.

The company made its most recent solo appearance at a Finovate conference the previous year at FinovateFall 2017, where it demonstrated its Cash Pick-Up solution. The technology enables a wide variety of disbursers – from P2P providers and corporate entities to NGOs and government agencies – to deliver cash to consumers through enabled ATMs without requiring a card. In addition to helping serve the underbanked, the solution can be used for emergency funds when cards are lost or stolen, P2P payments, or even for disaster relief. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “MA,” Mastercard has a market capitalization of $213 billion. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Purchase, New York.

Worldpay participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. The company’s presentation, It’s Not Just About Getting Paid, It’s About the Payment Journey, discussed the importance of implementing a “consumer friendly buying journey” when it comes to growing sales. Worldpay provides technology-led payment products and services to more than 400,000 customers using more than 300 different payment types. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in London, U.K., Worldpay merged with Vanitv at the beginning of the year in a deal valued at $10 billion.