Network International and Mastercard Partner to Transform UAE’s Commercial Payments Landscape

Network International, a leading enabler of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, has announced the launch of new Business Payment Solutions for businesses, corporations, and travel industry companies in the UAE. This initiative, developed in partnership with Mastercard, aims to revolutionize the commercial payments landscape by offering innovative business-to-business payment experiences for Network International’s corporate clients.

The new solutions will leverage Mastercard’s global digital payment expertise, including card offerings, expense management, and virtual card innovations. This partnership will enable Network International’s commercial clients in the UAE to digitize business expenses, streamline payables and receivables processes, enhance payment security, and improve overall cash flow.

Nandan Mer, Group CEO of Network International, commented: “We are delighted to achieve yet another milestone in Network’s 30-year journey of creating world-class digital payments infrastructure and services for clients in the UAE and the wider region. By launching the new Business Payment Solutions, Network aims to unlock further growth opportunities for businesses and corporations in the UAE. This initiative supports the UAE’s aspirations for a cashless economy by driving the digitization of commercial payments.”

J.K. Khalil, Division President, East Arabia, Mastercard, added: “At Mastercard, we are committed to removing fragmentation and complexity from commercial payments. We are delighted to strengthen our long-standing collaboration with Network to support commercial customers in the UAE. By embedding Mastercard’s digital payment expertise, expense management, and card technologies into the new Commercial Card Program, we aim to boost liquidity and remove friction from the system for more companies across the UAE.”

The new program will offer a range of business payment solutions targeted at merchants and general businesses in the UAE, including:

• Corporate Executive Card: Provides businesses of all sizes with robust controls for expense management.
• Incontrol Digital Business Payments: A virtual card for domestic and cross-border payments, offering the first-ever net-zero foreign transactions in the UAE.
• Mastercard Wholesale Program Digital Travel Payments: Designed to help travel industry customers secure, streamline, and automate B2B travel payment transactions, reducing costs through an innovative pricing model and efficiency via Mastercard’s virtual card technology.

This landmark announcement follows the recent approval of Network’s Stored Value Facility (SVF) license by the Central Bank of the UAE. As an SVF licensee, Network will enable its partners and customers to support prepaid card issuing and wallet provisioning, among other capabilities.