Credit cards giant Mastercard (NYSE: MA) is open to using central bank-issued national digital currencies in the future, the Financial Times reported.
“If governments look to create national digital currency we’d be very happy to look at those in a more favorable way,” said Ari Sarker, co-president of Mastercard’s Asia-Pacific business.
“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,” he added.
The company’s senior executive also said that Mastercard is running a cryptocurrency pilot program in Singapore and Japan, allowing some clients to “cash out” of Bitcoin onto a card.
However, Sarker noted that the program is not a crypto trading one and that strict controls, such as anti-money laundering and KYC, are in place.