According to Tuesday’sannouncement and press release, financial services giant, Mastercard is expanding to new offerings of payments-focused consulting services to help banks and merchants better understand the evolving digital asset and financial changes. It will cover everything from Open Banking, Open Data, Crypto & Digital Currencies, Environment, Social & Governance, or ESG including NFT strategy to crypto cards and loyalty programs. Eventually, it may provide support to set up central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

These new consulting services will help create actionable strategies around the development of crypto credit cards and crypto loyalty programs. As per the firm, it will also help central banks to explore the design and possibility of developing along with implementing CBDC through Mastercard testing platform, allowing them to research various scenarios before deployment. In the release, the company said "Mastercard has curated partnerships with digitally native firms that offer best-of-breed solutions in cryptocurrencies and has helped fintech expand into new markets, working through go-to-market planning and commercialization strategies,".

The company said currently, Mastercard's (MA) Data & Services comprises over 2000 data scientists and engineers, and consultants. In case of expanding, it will add more than 500 college graduates and young professionals.

During Mastercard's fourth-quarter earnings call, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said the company will continue to provide support to cryptocurrencies in 2022. To make customers buy NFTs without needing to first purchase Ethereum (ETH) or needing to have a digital wallet, the firm joins hands with Coinbase.

The previous action was taken by Mastercard towards digital currencies:

Partnering with Wirex and BitPay, Mastercard developed cryptocurrency cards. In 2021, Mastercard said it was getting prepared for crypto and payments. Recently for customers in Asia, Mastercard created crypto-focused payment cards partnering with Amber, Bitkub, and Coinjar. For Coinbase's upcoming NFT marketplace platform, Mastercard will be a payment option though it does not have a release date yet.

Indrani bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA