Mastercard partners PEXA to bring synchronised settlement to UK homebuying

Source: Mastercard

A new partnership between PEXA and Mastercard will explore how greater certainty could be provided for UK homebuyers on completion day, by testing account-to-account (A2A) payment innovation to support the property buying journey.

Completion day remains a complex point in the homebuying process. Property data, legal checks and payment flows need to align across multiple parties. When they do not, the result can be costly delays, uncertainty and, too often, property purchases falling through.

Mastercard and PEXA want to change that, using programmable A2A payments to securely reserve buyer funds and release them automatically only once agreed completion conditions are met.

This collaboration brings together PEXA’s digital property completion expertise with Mastercard’s payment orchestration capabilities to explore how money movement and property ownership transfer could be more closely synchronised. This work is underpinned by Vocalink, a Mastercard company, and its expertise operating the UK’s always-on A2A payments infrastructure.

The proposed model is expected to be tested through Mastercard’s A2A Sandbox, giving banks and partners a practical environment to explore programmable payment use cases. It builds on PEXA’s participation in the Bank of England Synchronisation Lab which is focused on the synchronised settlement of both lender funds and property title transfer.

Helena Forest, executive vice president, global product and commercial, real-time payments at Mastercard, said: “Buying a home should be an exciting milestone, not one overshadowed by uncertainty. By working with PEXA and using Mastercard’s A2A Sandbox to test new approaches, we’re exploring how account-to-account payment innovation can help make property transactions more predictable, efficient and consumer-focused.”

Krystle Kocik, UK co-chief executive officer of PEXA, said: “PEXA was established to make property completion and registration more certain by securely connecting money movement with property ownership.

“Working with Mastercard and Vocalink allows us to explore how synchronised settlement and programmable payments could support consumers, lenders and conveyancers, while advancing our vision for a digitally connected property market where trusted data, digital completion and next-generation payment capabilities work together.”

Keith Douglas, chief executive officer of Vocalink, added: “This partnership with PEXA explores how A2A innovation can make property completions simpler, safer and more certain. This is exactly the sort of capabilities the UK National Payments Vision looks to unlock: better, more coordinated payment experiences that reduce friction, improve confidence and deliver real benefits for people and businesses.”

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