Mastercard Prepares to Expand Network Capabilities for New Settlement Choices

Mastercard plans to expand its settlement capabilities to give issuers and acquirers more choice in how and when they settle transactions.

The new capabilities will include stablecoin, intraday, holiday and weekend options, the company said in a Wednesday (June 3) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

These enhancements will support both fiat currencies and on-chain card settlement using regulated stablecoins; will help improve liquidity management; and will expand choice in how money moves, while continuing to operate alongside existing processes, according to the release.

They will be especially relevant for cross-border payments, treasury, payouts and other use cases where timing and transparency are key, the release said.

The settlement enhancements will be accessible through the same global infrastructure used today, ensuring consistency, scalability, interoperability across Mastercard’s global ecosystem, and preservation of existing protections, per the release.

“The next phase of stablecoin adoption is about real-world utility, especially in settlement, where timing and liquidity matter most,” Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president, Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard, said in the release.

“By introducing intraday and weekend on settlement options across our global network, we’re expanding how partners manage liquidity and operate in an always-on digital economy while maintaining the trust, resilience and safeguards they expect from Mastercard,” Dhamodharan said.

Mastercard is embracing and integrating stablecoins, Dhamodharan told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster and Citi’s Ryan Rugg in an interview posted in February.

“We think of stablecoin as rails,” Dhamodharan said. “Each stablecoin can be thought of as a global ACH [automated clearing house], where the consumer doesn’t see the complexity.”

During a January earnings call, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said that Mastercard has spent more than a decade in digital assets and that for the company, “it is another currency we can support within our network.”

Mastercard announced Wednesday (May 27) that it secured a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS). PYMNTS reported at the time that this move shows the need for compliance across stablecoin and crypto payments as well as growing perception among major payments incumbents that their incumbent advantages around institutional-grade compliance are a way to compete against crypto natives.