Mastercard to Explore Ways to Integrate Fiserv’s FIUSD Stablecoin

Mastercard and Fiserv have partnered to explore ways Mastercard’s global payments network can integrate Fiserv’s new stablecoin, FIUSD.

The collaboration will enable individuals and businesses to use FIUSD across more than 150 million merchants, the companies said in a Tuesday (June 24) press release.

“This work with Fiserv is setting the stage for a new era, where stablecoins are as ubiquitous and trusted as fiat currencies, driving choice and innovation for all,” Chiro Aikat, co-president, Americas at Mastercard, said in the release.

The areas in which the companies see opportunities for stablecoin adoption and utility include seamless on- and off-ramping that will allow smooth transitions between fiat and FIUSD, enabling FIUSD as a settlement option for global acquirers so merchants can get paid in FIUSD, and connectivity to the Mastercard Multi-Token Network (MTN) so Fiserv’s Digital Asset Platform can bring off-the-shelf support for programmable on-chain commerce to banks, according to the release.

Mastercard and Fiserv will also enable the issuance of stablecoin-linked cards so consumers and businesses can make FIUSD payments anywhere Mastercard is accepted and, with Mastercard One Credential, choose the payment type of their choice, including debit, credit and stablecoin balances, per the release.

“To date, stablecoins have largely been a store of value,” Takis Georgakopoulos, chief operating officer at Fiserv, said in the release. “Our work with Mastercard is promoting greater reach and utility of stablecoins by helping our financial institutions and merchants enable greater payments choice to their customers.”

Fiserv said Monday (June 23) that it plans to launch a digital asset platform that includes the FIUSD stablecoin that will be added to the company’s banking and payments infrastructure by year’s end.

The company said that offering FIUSD across Fiserv’s network, which includes relationships with roughly 10,000 financial institutions and 6 million merchant locations worldwide, will “provide instant scale for FIUSD while creating a digital asset network that clients can use to build new products and services.”

Mastercard has been exploring stablecoin payments and other digital asset innovations as a way to deliver on the emerging digital expectation layer consumers have come to prefer, Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president, blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in May.

“For consumer adoption, most people won’t even know they’re using stablecoins,” Dhamodharan said. “In the U.S., there’s already a robust electronic infrastructure of wallets, bank accounts, etc. Crypto-native users may interact directly with blockchain, but most won’t. The real utility for them comes through simple experiences, like using a card linked to a stablecoin account.”

The post Mastercard to Explore Ways to Integrate Fiserv’s FIUSD Stablecoin appeared first on PYMNTS.com.