Photo: Contributed
(L to R) MasterCard’s Ajay Bhalla and Ajay Banga, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains and Invest in Canada’s Ian McKay.
Ottawa is putting up nearly $50 million to boost the presence of Mastercard Inc. in Vancouver with the launch of a $510 million cyber security centre.
The credit card company announced Thursday that the West Coast city would be the home of its sixth global technology centre—one focused on developing technologies to thwart cyber attacks in the payments arena.
In a bid to entice the financial giant to B.C., the federal government dipped into its Strategic Innovation Fund to the tune of $49 million.
A February 2019 analysis from The Logic revealed just over half the fund’s recipients were foreign firms, at the time the story was published.
“The Vancouver centre will help us meet the growing demand for technology solutions to reduce the cost of cyber-attacks, enable today’s connected devices to become tomorrow’s secure payment devices and address the growing vulnerabilities associated with the Internet of Things,” Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga said in a statement.
Mastercard’s new Intelligence and Cyber Centre will be based at The Exchange office tower on Howe Street, which counts Amazon.com Inc. among its tenants.
The Mastercard office houses Vancouver-founded cyber security firm NuData Security Inc., which Mastercard acquired in 2017.
Mastercard said in a statement the new centre will be “creating and maintaining” a total of 380 jobs, while the federal government estimated the new sit would create 100 new co-op positions.
NuData already employs about 100 workers in its downtown office, leaving Mastercard to hire about 300 more workers to meet the needs of the cyber centre.
Jill Tipping, CEO of the B.C. Tech Association, told Business in Vancouver Mastercard was clearly enticed by access to talent and the city’s connections with key markets around the world.
“I’m thrilled that they’re recognizing Vancouver as a great place to launch, but it makes it even more important that we put the investment into supporting our local homegrown companies,” she said.
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