Quote from: Diced90 on March 19, 2018, 10:55:00 AM

MasterCard Open To Not Anonymous, State-Issued Cryptocurrencies, All Others Junk
MasterCard is receptive to the idea of using central bank-issued national digital currencies in the future, according to the co-president of Mastercards Asia-Pacific business, the Financial Times reported today, March 19.

Senior MasterCard executive Ari Sarker told the Financial Times that if governments look to create national digital currency wed be very happy to look at those in a more favourable way [as compared to cryptocurrencies in general]:

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So long as its 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.

Ajay Banga, the CEO of MasterCard, had also said last fall that MasterCard would find a way to be in the game for government-created digital currencies, labelling all other cryptocurrencies without government-backing as junk.

Government-issued currencies have been discussed in several countries globally, but as-of-yet the centralized crypto phenomenon has not been realized by most. The most notable example of a successfully-issued state crypto is the Venezuelan Petro, which was recently released under a cloud of controversy.

Sarker also said that MasterCard was currently running a Bitcoin (BTC) pilot program in Japan and Singapore that would allow BTC holders to cash out onto a MasterCard, adding that the program involves both KYC and AML components:

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We are not operating trading of bitcoin through the MasterCard network [...] [The pilot] is a toe in the water, we're fully cognisant of the reputational risk.

Read more https://cointelegraph.com/news/mastercard-open-to-not-anonymous-state-issued-cryptocurrencies-all-others-junk

It is, at least, surprising that now MasterCard is running a Bitcoin pilot program in Japan and Singapore, when in the past Mastercard and Visa classified the buying of cryptocurrency as a cash advance instead of a purchase (https://www.altcoinss.com/news/news-mastercard-open-to-cryptocurrency-but-there-s-a-catch?uid=10005)

I suppose they are just understanding that they can not show the back to cryptocurrency and, even if they dont trust it, they need to make some steps in that direction to not to miss opportunities in the future. Although they consider it a risk.