The news: US-based merchant acquirer CardX—which is owned by paytech Stax—made Click to Pay a payment option for merchants using its Lightbox online point-of-sale (POS) system in partnership with Mastercard, per a press release.

Key context: Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express introduced Click to Pay in 2019. Users can pay with their desired card without entering their card information at checkout and approve the transaction via mobile authentication. Card details are encrypted and aren't shared with the merchant.

Why it matters for Mastercard: Card networks are encountering a growing threat at the online POS, and expanding Click to Pay can mitigate those concerns.

• The emergence of open banking has helped make account-to-account (A2A) payments more seamless. But A2A payments cut cards out of the payment process, which means card networks like Mastercard risk losing online market share.
• The value of open banking payments is expected to reach $330 billion globally by 2027, growing nearly 480% from 2023, according to Juniper Research.
• Although Mastercard has gained a foothold in open banking through its Finicity and Aiia acquisitions, the bulk of its business still comes from cards. We expect Mastercard will hit $2.850 trillion in network card transaction volume this year, per our forecasts.

Click to Pay offers the same level of security and ease as open banking-powered A2A payments. Forging deals with acquirers and merchants can help Mastercard preserve its online card spending volume.

CardX’s opportunity: Adding Click to Pay as a payment method improves the payment services CardX offers merchants, whose customers will likely appreciate having alternative payment options. The share of alternative payment methods relative to traditional methods is expected to increase in the coming years, according to TrueLayer analysis.

Related content: Check out our US Payment Card Networks 2022 report to learn about the challenges and opportunities that card networks are facing.

This article originally appeared in Insider Intelligence's Payments Innovation Briefing—a daily recap of top stories reshaping the payments industry. Subscribe to have more hard-hitting takeaways delivered to your inbox daily.

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