The CEO of Mastercard has outlined the company’s plans to develop products and services around cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). “We want to play a part in all of that… this is clearly a vibrant space around digital currencies,” the CEO said.
Mastercard Wants a Role in All 3 Crypto Sectors
Payments giant Mastercard provided an update to its cryptocurrency plans during the company’s earnings call on Thursday. CEO Michael Miback explained that his company wants roles in three crypto sectors. In addition to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, the company also focuses on private sector stablecoins and central bank digital currencies. He confirmed:
We want to play a part in all of that… it’s clearly a vibrant space around digital currencies… it’s a relevant technology. As a multi-rails player, we have to be in this place because people are looking for answers.
As for cryptocurrency, Mibach explained: “We are making it easy for cryptocurrency wallets to seamlessly connect to our network through a pilot with Paxos, Circle and Evolve Bank & Trust, which simplifies the conversion of crypto to fiat. makes.” The executive added: “Separately, we are partnering with Ethereum software engineering firm ConsenSys, to accelerate the development of crypto applications and services for our customers.”
The CEO said about crypto investing:
Obviously, people want to invest in that. They don’t want to sell their investments, and we’re going to make that as easy as possible. So we have all these partnerships.
As for stablecoins, the CEO said that Mastercard “is engaging with private sector players as well as regulators to see what good policy looks like around private sector stablecoins as this question about regulatory compliance remains unresolved.” “
Mibach reiterated what he said during the company’s Q1 earnings call that Mastercard is “technically getting our network ready to move these stablecoins as settlement currencies, provided they meet one of our three criteria.” that is regulatory compliance, consumer protection, and sustainability.”
Regarding central bank digital currencies, he said that central banks, including the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England, are exploring CBDCs. The executive said:
Things are definitely progressing… there is clear progress.
Responding to a question about Mastercard’s value proposition for central banks and government in the crypto space, the CEO said: “We bring a unique approach to the market… They said:
Everyone has different motivations from financial inclusion to cross-border payments and therefore, we are a demanding party as we have experience in all of these.
In particular, he noted: “I think a particularly important proposition here is our virtual testing platform because all these design choices have to be made by governments and we consult with them, then we have to live in the wild, that’s it.” Suffice to say. They have to work with the existing financial infrastructure, and that is what our virtual test platform does for them.”
What do you think of Mastercard’s plans for the crypto space? Let us know in the comments section below.
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