CEO Mastercard: “digital currencies of the Central Bank are a bridge between the state and the private sector”

The general director of the Mastercard payment system, Michael Mibach, believes that the digital currencies of the Central Bank will serve as a “bridge” between the state and private payment firms.

Michael Miebach said this during a virtual conference, according to Invezz. Payment giant Mastercard is actively involved in the promotion of cryptocurrencies. A few days ago, the company announced a partnership with the Bakkt platform, through which banks and merchants using Mastercard will be able to integrate cryptocurrencies into their products and services.

Meebach reported an increase in the number of customers using cards to buy cryptoassets. He also touched on the topic of government cryptocurrencies, saying that Mastercard has recently been paying special attention to studying their potential.

“The most likely scenario for the use of digital currencies in the payment field is if they are issued by governments. We talked about this before, so we are already preparing our infrastructure for the introduction of state stablecoins. Sooner or later, central banks will be ready to launch their own digital currencies, which will be used along with the dollar or euro as settlement currencies, ”Mibah said.

Mastercard introduced a platform for testing government cryptocurrencies about a year ago. Meebach added that Mastercard could play an important role in their development and deployment as the platform will become a secure virtual environment for governments and private payment firms to work together. In April, Mastercard began exploring the possibility of introducing smart contracts into digital currencies of central banks to expand the capabilities of these instruments.