BNY Mellon & MoCaFi to bring digital payments to underserved communities in US

By Delisha Fernandes

BNY Mellon and MoCaFi, a Black-founded FinTech platform for financial empowerment for traditionally underserved communities, have formed a strategic alliance to extend payment options to unbanked and underbanked communities in the US.

BNY Mellon’s Treasury Services business will now provide federal, state, and local governments and corporate clients with a digital disbursement payment service that reaches individuals without current access to basic financial services through MoCaFi’s offering.

The alliance reflects BNY Mellon’s broader commitment to financial inclusion, helping to connect unbanked and underbanked individuals and communities to high-quality financial services.

The new disbursement service, offered through BNY Mellon’s Vaia platform, allows governments and corporate clients to seamlessly distribute payments and disbursements, such as disaster relief financial aid and employee payroll, to individuals without financial services access.

Jennifer Barker, CEO of Treasury Services, BNY Mellon, said, “The inability to provide digital payments to a significant portion of the US economy has been a major hurdle for both public and private sectors. Through our commitment to innovation, we met this challenge head-on and are thrilled to join forces with a FinTech doing outstanding, tangible work in our communities. Not only does this fit with BNY Mellon’s values of making the financial ecosystem stronger, better and more accessible, it also promotes financial equity across the country for people in need.”

Wole Coaxum, CEO and Founder of MoCaFi, said, “Our alliance with BNY Mellon will accelerate our mission to reduce the racial and social wealth gap through increasing pathways to wealth for underserved individuals, especially communities of colour. Access to modern banking services is one of the best approaches to making our economy more inclusive, and by working with BNY Mellon, we are helping to provide opportunities to as many people as possible.”