Mastercard will help banks process crypto payments
They will become intermediaries between them and crypto provider Paxos
The company will launch the new product in early 2023
Payments giant Mastercard is launching a new programme to work with banks. It will make cryptocurrency transactions easier and faster.
So, Mastercard will become an intermediary between Paxos (a well-known cryptocurrency provider) and banks. The company will oversee security and regulatory compliance.
“There are a lot of customers who are interested in crypto. But to be more confident, they want such services to be offered by financial institutions,” explains Mastercard’s director of digital technology, Jorn Lambert.
He added that Mastercard’s role is very simple. They will be intermediaries and will leave banks their main job – to monitor regulation, verify transactions and customer identity, prevent money laundering, etc.
Mastercard will launch the new product in the first quarter of 2023 within one region. If the experience is successful, the service will be rolled out globally. The company declined to say which banks would be involved in such a project.
Interestingly, bitcoin was invented to break the monopoly of banks and intermediaries (including Mastercard). After all, blockchain technology allows you to transfer money without intermediaries and with low fees. Here’s what Jörn Lambert had to say about it:
“Cryptocurrency is on the cusp of the mainstream. But for now, it needs to merge with existing players. Without intermediaries from trusted companies, digital currencies will not achieve mass adoption.”
Recall that Mastercard has offered banks a Crypto Secure service – it checks crypto-payments for fraud.
