Mastercard Partners with Scale to Accelerate BIN Sponsorships in Africa and Middle East

On August 15, 2024, Mastercard announced a collaboration with fintech startup Scale to accelerate the growth of digital payment solutions in Africa and the Middle East. Scale operates as an issuer orchestration partner, helping organizations navigate the complex process of securing BIN sponsorships from sponsor banks — a foundational requirement for launching card and payment programs. Through this partnership, fintechs, banks, telcos, and other enterprises can more efficiently connect with BIN sponsors and focus on building their core products rather than managing banking infrastructure relationships.

The collaboration addresses a key bottleneck in the BaaS value chain: the difficulty of obtaining and managing bank sponsorship arrangements, particularly in emerging markets. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The initiative is expected to expand the digital payments ecosystem across the two regions by making it significantly easier for non-bank entities to launch payment programs under Mastercard's network.