Mastercard Acquires Open Banking Platform Aiia to Expand API Connectivity

On September 7, 2021, Mastercard announced the acquisition of Aiia, a Copenhagen-based open banking technology company formerly known as Nordic API Gateway. Aiia provides API connectivity to more than 2,700 banks across Europe, enabling third-party fintechs, merchants, and financial institutions to access bank account data and initiate account-to-account payments. The acquisition strengthens Mastercard's open banking capabilities, complementing its earlier purchase of Finicity in North America.

For the embedded finance ecosystem, Aiia's technology serves as critical infrastructure allowing non-bank platforms to embed banking services such as account aggregation, payment initiation, and financial data access into their products. Financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed. The deal was expected to close subject to regulatory approvals.

This acquisition positions Mastercard as a key enabler of embedded finance across European markets by providing the API plumbing that connects banks to third-party platforms.