Mastercard Eyes Digital Yuan Opportunities

Global payments giant Mastercard is in talks with various central banks with an eye on opportunities in central bank digital currencies.

Amongst the central banks in discussion with Mastercard is the People’s Bank of China, according to a report citing APAC co-president Ling Hai.

Circulation of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) outside of their home country could be converted into foreign currencies with a card clearing network acting as the conversion agent, Ling explained.

While central banks can address their domestic issues associated with digital sovereign currencies, the role we can always play is on interoperability when the payment goes beyond a country’s borders, he said. For us, supporting a central bank digital currency is similar to adding another fiat currency onto our network.

Mastercard is already increasingly establishing its digital currency capabilities with an existing partnership with the Bahamas where it provides prepaid card services to help travelers convert their CBDC – the Bahamas Sand dollar – into other fiat currencies.

Centralized digital currencies aside, Mastercard also announced plans to increase support for select decentralized cryptocurrencies.

Within China, it is also awaiting final approval for a license to conduct its card business onshore.