Mastercard has chosen spend management/virtual card FinTech Extend as one of its financial operations platform partners.

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The collaboration, announced Monday (Oct. 19), is designed to bring new spend and expense management tools directly to commercial card issuing banks in the U.S. and Canada.

“Banks start with an advantage that’s hard to compete with,” Extend said in a blog post announcing the partnership. “Large banks have historically served about 85% of the small business card market, and businesses trust them with their deposits, their credit, their treasury solution expertise, and ultimately, their business.”

However, the card itself has turned into a commodity, the company added, with issuing cards and offering program benefits no longer enough to stand out. Commercial card issuers are losing out to “software-first providers,” Extend said, as businesses seek better tools.

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“That puts banks in a race,” the announcement added. “To compete for, win, and keep business customers, they need to deliver a modern software experience on top of the card programs they already run, and they need it now.”

Extend said its partnership with Mastercard closes that gap, giving banks an “out-of-the-box, software-first experience” for their card programs, while giving businesses access to things like virtual cards, automated month-end reconciliation, and AI agents.

“We work closely with our issuing banks to understand and serve the needs of business customers,” said Ginger Siegel , head of North America small and mid market business for Mastercard.

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