Tag: mastercard

Mastercard, 1inch Partner to Launch New Crypto Debit Card: All You Need to Know

A new crypto debit card has entered the fintech ecosystem, programmed with the crypto-to-fiat bridge functionality. DeFi firm 1inch has collaborated with cards payment giant Mastercard to launch this card. The card has been developed by Baanx, a cryptocurrency payments specialist authorised by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Mastercard believes that crypto-enabled cards make for a significant tool that bridges the gap between fiat and crypto currencies. The US-based company has been taking several pro-crypto steps to establish its name in the Web3 sector for some years now.

The debit card by 1inch will allow holders to pay for their purchases through cryptocurrencies for both online and retail purchases. The card will work anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

“This is another major step towards onboarding mass users to DeFi,” said Sergej Kunz, 1inch co-founder. “With the 1inch Card, the user can benefit from the advantages of both DeFi and traditional finance.”

The card will let its holders convert their capital from fiat to crypto. The holders, however, will need crypto tokens in their 1inch wallet.

“Baanx is pleased to integrate the Crypto Life Card into the 1inch user ecosystem in partnership with Mastercard and looks forward to a successful partnership,” said Simon Jones, CCO, Baanx and Crypto Life.

Mastercard will provide the underlaying technology that will power this card. Each card will come with the traditional details engraved like a number, validity date, and CVC.

“Leveraging Mastercard’s leading technology and standards, the 1inch Card is connecting Web2 and Web3 worlds in an innovative way,” said Christian Rau, Senior Vice President, Crypto and Fintech Enablement at Mastercard.

The cards giant, in a recent pro-crypto move, initiated work on launching a crypto-based loyalty rewards programme. The company has already partnered with crypto exchanges including Binance, Nexo and Gemini to offer crypto-linked payment cards in some countries.

This new debit card, for now, will be made available in the UK and the European Economic Area (EAA) for its initial roll-out phase. A waitlist is now open for interested users should they want to acquire this card.

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Airtel Payments Bank Smartwatch With NFC for Contactless Payments Launched in India: Price, Specifications

Airtel Payments Bank smartwatch was launched in India on Tuesday (March 19). This marks the entry of the telecom operator in the smartwatch segment and becomes the first device to be launched by it. The smartwatch has been developed in collaboration with the wearable brand Noise and the payment-technology provider Mastercard. The main offering of the Airtel smartwatch is that it is NFC-enabled and allows users to make contactless ‘Tap and Pay’ payments up to Rs. 25,000 per day.

Airtel Payments Bank Smartwatch price, availability

The Airtel Payments Bank smartwatch price has been set at Rs. 2,999. It is available in black, blue, and grey colour options. However, the smartwatch can only be purchased by those who are existing members of the Airtel Payments Bank. A bank account can be created digitally but it is required before ordering the wearable device. The Airtel watch is already available on sale and can be bought right away. It can be purchased only through the Airtel Thanks app. It is not available to buy on any other ecommerce platform or offline retailers.

Airtel Payments Bank Smartwatch specifications, features

Airtel’s first smartwatch features an NFC chip that enables the device to make contactless payments via the Airtel Payments Bank. The device can be activated by linking to the savings bank account through the Thanks app.

After linking it, users can immediately begin making payments by tapping the watch on Point of Sale (POS) machines that come with the tap-and-pay functionality. Users will be able to make payments up to Rs. 25,000 every day through the device. The technology provider for the smartwatch is Mastercard which supports the NFC chip across its network.

The Airtel smartwatch is designed and crafted by Noise, as per the press release. It features a 1.85-inch square TFT display with 550 nits of brightness and offers 150 cloud-based watch faces. The health and fitness features on the Airtel watch includes a stress monitor and a SpO2 sensor. It supports Bluetooth calling and has an IP68 certification for dust and water resistance. The company claims the battery in the smartwatch can last for up to 10 days.

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Mastercard, Swoo Pay Initiate Work to Offer Crypto-Based Loyalty Rewards: Details

While nations around the world are taking a slow and calculated approach towards engaging with crypto, fintech giants like Mastercard and Visa are already incorporating pro-crypto steps as part of their operations. In a fresh development, Mastercard has initiated work around launching crypto-based loyalty rewards. The payments giant has reportedly decided to work with Swoo Pay, a mobile payments app focussed on emerging markets. The crypto culture, around the world, seems to be picking pace and that could be acting as a nudging factor for fintech giants like Mastercard to explore possibilities for integrating services with Web3.

Mastercard and Swoo Pay will work collectively to drive in the culture of crypto-based loyalty rewards in emerging economies – where people despite having access to Mastercard and Visa card, do not have access to Google Pay. Swoo users in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Philippines, and Indonesia get Swoo tokens as rewards when they make payments via the app. These tokens can either be converted into other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and USD Coin or into fiat currencies.

As part of this initiative, Mastercard will serve as the ultimate backer for Swoo tokens, a Coindesk report said.

“Swoo Pay solves issues with tokenised payments for Android users, making them more accessible. Our collaboration is designed to provide additional innovative incentives for Swoo users in making everyday purchases,” the report quoted a Mastercard executive as commenting on the development.

Swoo is also looking to drive this Mastercard-powered crypto loyalty rewards initiative into areas where China-made Huawei smartphones are popular among the people. Due to sanctions from the US government, there are no Google services like Pay on these phones.

“Through Swoo’s contactless payments and crypto rewards, millions of consumers in emerging markets will be introduced to the crypto ecosystem,” a report by CoinTelegraph quoted Swoo co-CEO Filipp Shubin as saying.

Mastercard, meanwhile, has been taking several steps to experiment with cryptocurrencies. The company has already partnered with crypto exchanges including Binance, Nexo and Gemini to offer crypto-linked payment cards in some countries.

To make blockchain-based financial ecosystems secure, scalable, and interoperable — Mastercard is creating the ‘Multi-Token Network (MTN)’.

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Mastercard Launches CBDC Partner Program for Discussions on Digital Currencies Among Crypto Players: Details

Mastercard has taken another step into its Web3 foray with the launch of a CBDC-focussed forum. The aim is to provide crypto players with a platform where they can open discussions around the emergence of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), that are beginning to crop up in different parts of the world. Supported on blockchains, CBDCs are the digital representations of fiat currencies like dollars and rupees. Several countries including India are already working on their respective CBDCs, hoping to bring more transparency to financial records.

Called the ‘CBDC Partner Program’, this initiative aims to stir discussions on how CBDCs could be made more efficient in terms of use cases, an official blog post from Mastercard said on August 17.

Crypto-related firms Ripple, Consensys, Fluency, Idemia, Consult Hyperion, and Fireblocks have been roped-in by Mastercard as the initial members of its CBDC Partner Program.

As per Mastercard’s Raj Dhamodharan, people must have a diverse range of payment options that come with the capability of interoperability. Dhamodharan serves as the head of digital assets and blockchain at the company.

“It will be essential that the value held as a CBDC is as easy to use as other forms of money, as we look ahead toward a digitally driven future. We believe in payment choice and that interoperability across the different ways of making payments is an essential component of a flourishing economy,” Dhamodharan said.

Mastercard, in its blog further added that at this point, 93 percent of central banks are engaged in some form of work on CBDCs. Given the situation, discussions among crypto players could help central banks avoid mistakes and loopholes.

“There are many questions that central banks need to consider. This includes the role of the private sector in CBDC issuance, security, privacy, and interoperability — such as how a CBDC works with other commonly used payment mechanisms, what specific challenges CBDCs would solve and whether they’re even the right tool for the job,” noted Jesse McWaters, Head, Global Regulatory Advocacy, Mastercard.

With this CBDC Partner Program, Mastercard wishes to add more understanding to the safe and useful deployment of CBDCs, enriched with the feedback of industry players.

“Implemented poorly, a CBDC could create disruptions in the established payment system and crowd out private sector investment,” the blog added.

CBDCs function like cryptocurrencies, but instead of being unregulated and volatile, CBDCs are regularised and issued by the central banks. CBDCs not only maintain unchangeable and transparent records of online payments, but also reduces dependency on cash notes.

Developing markets like India and China have found a broader acceptance for CBDCs, a recent survey on CBDCs by the CFA Institute said. The survey further noted that 42 percent of its global respondents were in favour of central banks releasing CBDCs.

Owing to the rise in CBDC craze, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also said that it had begun work on a platform to enable CBDC transactions between countries back in June.

The IMF aims to converge central banks on a common regulatory framework for digital currencies that will allow global interoperability. Failure to agree on a common platform would create a vacuum that would likely be filled by cryptocurrencies, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had said at the time.

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Mastercard Plans to Expand Crypto Payment Card Programme With New Tie-Ups

Mastercard will expand its cryptocurrency payment card programme by seeking more partnerships with crypto firms, the company’s head of crypto and blockchain said, even as the sector comes under closer scrutiny from regulators and banks grow wary.

Mastercard has already partnered with crypto exchanges including Binance, Nexo and Gemini to offer crypto-linked payment cards in some countries. The Binance cards allow users to make payments in traditional currencies, funded by their cryptocurrency holdings on the exchange.

“We have dozens of partners around the world who offer crypto card programmes and they continue to expand,” Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard‘s head of crypto and blockchain, told Reuters on Thursday.

“Providing access to crypto in a safe way is also part of our value proposition and we’re continuing to do that.”

Banks have become wary of crypto clients after a number of big crypto firms collapsed last year, including the bankruptcy of major exchange FTX. Meanwhile, US regulators are increasingly cracking down on what they say is a lack of compliance in the market.

In March, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance, accusing the world’s largest crypto exchange of operating what the regulator called an “illegal” exchange and a “sham” compliance program.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the complaint contained an “incomplete recitation of facts”.

Dhamodharan declined to comment on Binance specifically, but said any card programme “goes through full due diligence” and is continuously monitored.

Some banks, including Santander and NatWest, limit the amount of money UK customers can transfer to cryptocurrency exchanges to protect consumers from scams and fraud.

In November, rival Visa severed its global credit card agreements with FTX. American Express — which had said in 2021 it would consider using crypto as a possible option to redeem reward points — said in February that it did not see crypto replacing its main payment and lending services in the near term.

Asked if Mastercard is considering imposing restrictions on the amount of money that could be transferred to crypto exchanges using its payments network, Dhamodharan said, “We’re not here to pick winners. We’re not here to pick which transaction should happen or shouldn’t happen.”

He added users of Mastercard’s network go through a number of compliance checks, adding that the company has invested in crypto analytics technology.

Mastercard is “really quite enthusiastic” about the underlying blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies, Dhamodharan said.

“We think more and more regulated money will come to this,” he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Mastercard CEO Bats for Crypto Laws, Says Long Way to Go for Crypto to Become Mainstream

Mastercard Michael Miebach has predicted that widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies is a long way away from becoming a reality. While maintaining an optimistic attitude towards the asset class gaining more popularity in the future, Miebach said that the formulation of apt laws is needed as soon as possible. The Mastercard chief executive is a Bitcoin supporter and aims to speed things up to the time where BTC is used as a regular payment option.

In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Miebach claimed that an increasing number of investors are showing enthusiasm to experiment with crypto assets. 

“I think these things need to click in, and then you have the building blocks for it to become mainstream. I think it’s a long way to go before crypto becomes mainstream,” the Mastercard honcho was quoted as saying.

Founded in November 1966, Mastercard today provides financial services to millions of people worldwide.

Keeping up with the newer generation of customers, the card services provider is now expanding into the crypto sector.

Last month, Mastercard teamed up with blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos on a programme designed to help banks and fintech companies offer their customers crypto trading services.

In addition, the company has launched a new tool called ‘Crypto Secure’ that is intended to help banks and financial institutions detect as well as prevent fraudulent activities associated with virtual digital assets.

Meanwhile, Mastercard CFO Sachin Mehra does not concur with his colleague. Mehra believes that cryptocurrencies are too volatile in nature to be a dependable payment instrument.

“If something fluctuates in value every day, such that your Starbucks coffee today costs you $3 (roughly Rs. 240) and tomorrow it’s going to cost you $9 (roughly Rs. 715), and the day after it’s going to cost you a dollar, that’s a problem from a consumer-mindset standpoint,” the CFO was quoted as saying in an interview in August.

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Mastercard Launches ‘Crypto Secure’ to Assist Banks in Preventing Cases of Fraud

Mastercard, the 55-years old financial services provider, has earned the reputation of a crypto-friendly company in recent years. In a fresh development, Mastercard has launched a new tool called ‘Crypto Secure’ that is intended to help banks and financial institutions detect as well as prevent fraudulent activities associated with virtual digital assets. The tool is based on sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that will be utilised to identify potential crypto-related scams. The development was confirmed by Ajay Bhalla – the President of Cyber and Intelligence Business at Mastercard.

To support this initiative, Mastercard has partnered with CipherTrace. The blockchain startup will be providing the infrastructure for rolling-out the tool.

“The idea is that the kind of trust we provide for digital commerce transactions, we want to be able to provide the same kind of trust to digital asset transactions for consumers, banks, and merchants. I think you’ve got to take the longer view that this is a big marketplace now and evolving and is probably going to be much, much bigger in the future,” Bhalla said in an official blogpost.

Crypto Secure combines insights and technology from CipherTrace with proprietary information to help card issuers stay compliant with the laws around digital assets.

The tool will allow the banks to better assess the risk profile of crypto exchanges or other providers as well.

“Crypto Secure is the latest step in Mastercard’s broader digital assets strategy, which helps bridge the gap between traditional finance and the world of crypto, and enables individuals to seamlessly spend funds from their crypto accounts in everyday transactions,” Mastercard noted in its post.

In recent times, Mastercard has taken several steps favourable in promoting crypto and Web3 services.

Last month, Mastercard announced the launch of a new category of debit cards that will come with the option to be customisable with non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

In October last year, Mastercard entered into a deal with crypto-wallet platform Bakkt to allow merchants, fintech firms, and banks to accept and extend a broad set of solutions and services involving cryptocurrencies.

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Byju’s Said to Owe Over Rs. 80 Crore to BCCI, Paytm Wants to Exit as Title Sponsor

Indian cricket team’s jersey sponsor Byju’s allegedly owes Rs. 86.21 crore as dues to the BCCI while title sponsor Paytm has requested the board to transfer its rights to a third party.

It was only in April that the Edtech company and the BCCI had agreed on the extension of their partnership until the end of the 2023 ODI World Cup in India at a 10 percent increment.

The issue was discussed by the BCCI Apex Council on Thursday.

“As of today, Byju’s owes dues of Rs. 86.21 crore to the Board,” a BCCI source told PTI after the meeting.

Byju’s first came on board back in 2019 when mobile manufacturer Oppo transferred the sponsorship rights to the online tutorial firm.

The start-up last month said that 500 people have been laid after reports suggested more than 1000 were fired.

In other development, it has been learnt that fintech company Paytm has requested the BCCI to assign their India Home Cricket title rights to Mastercard.

The current agreement between Paytm and the BCCI runs from September 2019 to March 31, 2023.

The company had missed the July timeline to request for reassignment of the sponsorship. However, considering the “longstanding” relationship between the two parties, the BCCI will consider Paytm’s request.

“Paytm has request the BCCI for reassignment and the board is considering it,” the source added.

In August 2019, Paytm had extended its association as the title sponsor for international and domestic cricket matches in India by four years with a winning bid of Rs. 3.80 crore per match.

 

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India’s Proposed IT Rules, Panel Formation for Content Moderation Decisions Concern US Tech Giants

US lobby groups representing Facebook and Twitter are concerned India’s plan to form a government panel to hear appeals against content moderation decisions could lack independence, documents seen by Reuters show. The proposed policy change is the latest flashpoint between India and technology giants which have for years said stricter regulations are hurting their business and investment plans. It also comes as India clashes with Twitter in a high-profile spat, which recently saw the social media firm sue the government in a local court to revoke some content removal orders.

The June proposal mandates social media companies must comply with a newly formed government panel which will decide on user complaints against content moderation decisions. The government has not specified who would be on the panel.

But the US-India Business Council (USIBC), part of the US Chamber of Commerce, and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), have both raised concerns internally, saying the plan raises worries about how such a panel could act independently if the government controls its formation.

The rules will create a Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) “which is entirely controlled by the (IT) Ministry, and lacks any checks or balances to ensure independence,” USIBC stated in an internal July 8 letter addressed to India’s IT ministry.

“In the absence of industry and civil society representation, such GACs may result in over regulation from the government.”

The new Indian proposal was open for public consultation until early July and no fixed date for implementation has been set.

Underscoring its concerns, USIBC noted that other countries like the European Union guarantee principles of “fairness and impartiality” in its appeal process, while a government-funded think tank in Canada recommends an “impartial dispute resolution” by a “disinterested professional body”.

The other group, USISPF too expressed concern internally in one document dated July 6, questioning “how will its (panel’s) independence be ensured.”

Together, USIBC and USISPF represent top technology companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Alphabet Inc’s Google — companies that often receive government takedown requests or carry out content review proactively.

USIBC, Facebook and Google did not respond to requests for comment, while USISPF and Twitter declined comment. India’s IT ministry did not respond.

A senior Indian official told Reuters on Wednesday the government was open to not having an appeals panel if companies come together and form their own “fairly neutral” self regulatory system of addressing user problems.

“If they don’t do it, government will have to. The panel is expected to operate independently,” said the official.

Tension flared between India and Twitter last year when the company declined to comply fully with orders to take down accounts the government said were spreading misinformation. Twitter has also faced backlash for blocking accounts of influential Indians, including politicians, citing violation of its policies.

Other US tech companies such as Mastercard, Visa, Amazon, and Walmart’s Flipkart have had a host of issues with Indian policies on data storage, stricter compliance requirements as well as some foreign investment rules many executives say are protectionist in nature.

The Indian government has said it was forced to announce the new rules in a bid to set “new accountability standards” for social media giants.

Without specifying which rights, the proposals also call for companies to “respect the rights guaranteed to users under the Constitution of India” as companies had “acted in violation” of such rights.

Both USIBC and USISPF note in their documents they believe fundamental rights in India can’t be enforced this way.

“The fundamental rights are not enforceable against private companies … The rule appears to be broad, and will be difficult to demonstrate compliance,” USIBC said.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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