Mastercard has forged a new partnership with the Independent Community Bankers of America’s payments subsidiary in an effort to sell its services to some of that entity’s 1,400 financial institution members. Mastercard is pitching upgraded payments technology services to the banks, which in turn would allow the banks to offer their customers more modern contactless card, digital wallet and fraud prevention services. ICBA Payments is a for-profit subsidiary of the ICBA non-profit trade association parent. “By partnering with Mastercard, we’re equipping our member banks with innovative, secure, and cost-effective solutions that empower them to support and grow the neighborhoods they serve,” ICBA Payments CEO Jacob Eisen said. Mastercard is making its services available to all of ICBA Payments members, though the transition to its services will start with “several hundred” of the banks. Major U.S. financial institutions, such as JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank, dominate the banking industry, but there are thousands of smaller banks across the U.S., totaling about 9,000 institutions overall. Under the new services, ICBA Payments’ banks will have access to “contactless plastics, tokenization to digital wallets, and industry standard 8-digit BINs and business BIN optimization.” ICBA Payments has had an existing relationship with Mastercard, as well as Visa, for credit and debit card issuance. The new tie to Mastercard is an expansion of that prior relationship. ICBA Payments members jointly have about 10 million credit and debit cards outstanding, making the banks, collectively, the 10th-largest issuer of debit cards and 29th-largest issuer of credit cards in the U.S. As part of the partnership with Purchase, Mastercard, ICBA Payments will shift its “sponsored card programs to Mastercard” as the card network handles all the communication and marketing for members.