Mastercard is expanding its crypto department. The credit card giant announced early in the week that it’s looking to help companies around the world better understand the growing digital currency industry and will hire as many as 500 individuals in the coming year to facilitate its ongoing crypto projects.
Mastercard Is Building Its Crypto Services
Mastercard is seeking to lend itself out as a consultant of sorts to businesses and enterprises everywhere looking to set foot in the digital currency space. Among the departments the firm will cover are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and risk assessment so firms can better understand the problems associated with the industry and what they can do to avoid common issues.
In a press release, the card giant explained:
Mastercard has curated partnerships with digitally-native firms that offer best-of-breed solutions in cryptocurrencies and has helped fintech [companies] expand into new markets, working through go-to-market planning and commercialization strategies.
Mastercard has long been a huge proponent of digital currencies. Late last year, the firm partnered with several digital currency companies including Bitkub, Amber Group, and Coinjar to ensure its customers could have access to crypto-based debit cards in the future. Rama Sridhar – the executive vice president of Mastercard – mentioned in an interview:
In collaboration with these partners that adhere to the same core principles that Mastercard does – that any digital currency must offer stability, regulatory compliance, and consumer protection – Mastercard is expanding what’s possible with cryptocurrencies to give people even greater choice and flexibility in how they pay.
During a fourth quarter earnings call in 2021, CEO Michael Miebach said his company will continue its support of the digital currency space well into 2022 and beyond. The firm has recently joined hands with Coinbase to help customers purchase NFTs without Ethereum wallets. At press time, a release date for this service has not been announced, though the company is telling customers to keep their eyes open for news releases.
In addition, Mastercard is utilizing the open-banking nature of Coinbase to help establish strategies that best develop crypto products for its clients and advise investors. Raj Seshadri – the president of data and services at Mastercard – commented:
This evolution of consulting is in recognition of the changing world and of our changing business. It’s about helping customers navigate today’s challenges and anticipating what’s next.
Does Open Banking Work?
Open banking is believed to boast positives and negatives. The process is acclaimed for its ease of transfers between accounts. It is also believed to match customers with appropriate financial products and offer better loan terms. Open banking is also believed to offer better fraud monitoring for small to medium-sized businesses.
However, organizations like FICO say that the process can potentially lead to increases in data breaches and insider threats such as data-screen scraping.
Source: https://www.livebitcoinnews.com/mastercard-is-hiring-to-build-out-its-crypto-department/