Mastercard expanded its AI capabilities once again over the Christmas period, completing its acquisition of global threat intelligence company Recorded Future.
The US-based global payments processor and card issuer, one of the sector’s largest companies, first secured terms to acquire Massachusetts-headquartered Recorded Future back in September.
Mastercard stresses that the acquisition is indicative of its commitment to ‘creating a higher standard of trust in the payment ecosystem’ via cybersecurity. The firm states that it is focusing on assessing cyber risk exposure and using AI and other technologies to protect the digital ecosystem that underpins the modern payments sector.
“As the world becomes more digitised, there’s an increased focus on securing every interaction and transaction against evolving cyber threats,” said Johan Gerber, Executive Vice President of Security Solutions at Mastercard.
“Adding Recorded Future’s AI-driven threat intelligence capabilities to our cybersecurity services, identity solutions and real-time fraud scoring will enable us to better support our customers in these efforts.”
Mastercard claims that the acquisition of Recorded Future will add to its capabilities by prodigy beneficial intelligence and actionable insights and enhancing its existing products and services by making AI models smarter.
Like other major payments companies, Mastercard has been moving to make greater use of AI across its operations. Last year saw the firm significantly step up its AI efforts, and last month it laid out plans to continue leveraging AI in 2025, particularly in the area of fraud prevention.
The $2.65bn acquisition of Recorded Future builds on a previous collaboration between the two organisations. Mastercard and Recorded Future had collaborated on an AI-supported service that alerts financial institutions when a card has been compromised, with the solution taken live last year.