Mastercard Expands Partnership with Citi to Support Small Businesses

Mastercard, one of the world’s largest financial services providers, and Citi recently announced the expansion of their partnership to support local residents and small businesses through larger public-private sector collaboration.

The newly expanded collaboration will initially grant City Possible network members access to 'Citi Start Saving' and 'City Builder by Citi' through the Mastercard City Insights Digital Marketplace. As one of the leading global banks, Citi has nearly 200 million customer accounts with a presence in more than 160 countries.

Previously, Mastercard and Citi collaborated to provide different innovative solutions to multi-national organizations and financial institutions around the world. In 2020, Citi joined the Priceless Planet Coalition as a founding partner.

“Cities need to think about how to adapt to a digital world in a way that leverages technology to bring more people into the digital economy,” commented Miguel Gamino, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Partnerships and Head of Global Cities and City Possible at Mastercard. “Partners like Citi allow us to continue to expand the range of solutions we can provide to the City Possible network, which has already played an important role in helping to build more inclusive communities.”

The latest announcement from Mastercard came nearly 1 month after the financial services giant announced the acquisition of CipherTrace, one of the leading crypto intelligence companies, to expand its capabilities in the field of digital assets.

City Possible

City Possible, Mastercard’s partnership and co-creation framework for cities has supported a framework where members can draw on the collective expertise and resources of all stakeholders in order to replicate innovative solutions that address urban challenges. According to Mastercard, the main focus of City Possible is to build and support more resilient communities through collaboration.

“Partnering with Mastercard will accelerate these endeavors and generate new thought leadership across the City Possible network,” Andy Taylor, Managing Director, North America Public Sector Group at Citi, said.