Price volatility has been the number one reason financial institutions has rejected cryptocurrencies, but no one can deny the power of the blockchain and what benefits it brings to diverse industries.
Of recent, a few banks, Lloyds Banking Group, a U.K. based bank and Citigroup, J.P.Morgan Chase, and Bank of America based in the U.S. have suspended the use of their credit/debit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies.
One of those organisations who has bluntly turned down the idea of cryptocurrencies is MasterCard, a worldwide card provider for financial institutions, through a spokesman, Mathew Driver, who is the CEO, South East Asia emphasised that cryptocurrencies lack transparency and transactions with cryptos cannot be trusted.
In a bid to clarify his position, he asked why people would want to make anonymous transactions, as it’s those who have something to hide/dubious people that will embrace such an idea.
As expected, Driver praised MasterCard for their impact to making transactions throughout the globe more comfortable, though he left out specific details that have happened in the past like the company having to pay back American retailers after they’ve been overcharged on transaction fees way back in 2012.
Though the company hasn’t changed their thoughts on cryptocurrencies, which they have numerous times referred to as “Junks,” MasterCard might be supporting cryptocurrencies after all, but not all cryptocurrencies.
In a statement released by the co-president of MasterCard, Asia Pacific, the company may be opened to using a central bank issued cryptocurrencies in future.
Another senior MasterCard executive, Ari Sarker also said that the only way the company would pick interest in cryptocurrencies at all was if the government released a national cryptocurrency. That would be more appealing to them than the regular virtual currencies.
“So long as it’s backed by a regulator and the value . . . it is not anonymous; it is meeting all the regulatory requirements, I think that would be of greater interest for us to explore.”
MasterCard has also been reported to be running a Bitcoin pilot program that allows bitcoin holders cash out in local currency through their MasterCard. But this would be far from an anonymous concept of transacting as this involves KYC and AML. Also, the company is working on using the Blockchain to improve transaction times and other processes as well.
“MasterCard Labs is working on a Blockchain technology that will support a wide range of use cases, including but not exclusive to [business to business] interbank payments, tracking trade finance obligations along the value chain, exchanging know your customer and anti-money laundering data between trusted parties, and more.” – Ari Sarker revealed.
