Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ), the global modern card issuing platform, today announced a partnership with Plaid, a data network that powers the tools millions of people rely on to live healthier financial lives, to simplify ACH transfers, enabling customers to seamlessly and securely authenticate their bank accounts and fund their accounts to power more immediate spending.

This technology will enable Marqeta customer's cardholders to more easily initiate ACH transactions to send money between customer accounts and external accounts. They will also be able to verify and link external accounts more quickly, making it easier to fund their accounts and start spending sooner. Marqeta customers will also be able to keep their users up-to-date on transfer status with real-time notifications and will be able to more simply handle initiation, cancellations, and returns across their accounts via Marqeta's APIs.

"By partnering with Plaid, we are building on the capabilities of modern card issuing that make it easier for our customers to build innovative card programs that allow their businesses to thrive," said Vidya Peters, Chief Operating Officer, Marqeta. "We're making it as simple as possible for consumers to access their bank information from one application, and reduce the time it takes to fund and begin using their account. Through our Plaid integration, developers building on Marqeta can authenticate users' bank accounts without the complexity and extra time associated with traditional ACH processing, creating an overall more seamless experience."

Plaid works with more than 12,000 financial institutions to make it easy for fintech companies like Marqeta to deliver financial products and services via the Plaid network. An additional benefit of this partnership is enhanced security: Marqeta customers will avoid storing sensitive information from their cardholders' external bank accounts as they will only need to handle tokens, while Plaid and Marqeta exchange bank account information in the background.

"The future of financial services involves a simplified, secure way to share financial information and move money across applications," said Eric Sager, Chief Operating Officer at Plaid. "Legacy infrastructure laid the groundwork for the payments landscape, and Plaid's partners like Marqeta provide a faster and more seamless experience for our joint customers to securely offer ACH transfers."

For more information and to get started with Marqeta and Plaid, click here.