MasterCard is all for crypto as long as it is backed by the government

• The credit card company supports the idea of digital currency issued by a central bank.
• Mastercard is actively engaged in researching blockchain and crypto.

Mastercard has announced that it is receptive to using nationally backed central bank issued digital currency in the future while holding on to its stance that all others are “junk”, The Financial Times reported.

Mastercard adopts a friendly approach towards digital currencies as long as they are issued by central banks. The credit card giant sticks to the point that private crypto coins are "junk", while government-backed digital money is a positive development towards cashless society, Ari Sarkar, Mastercard co-president for the Asia-Pacific region said in the interview with the Financial Times.

“If governments look to create national digital currency we’d be very happy to look at those in a more favorable way [compared with existing cryptocurrencies].” 
  
“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,” Ari Sarker explained.

A lot of governments are looking into the possibilities of creating central bank backed cryptocurrency, including Russia, China, Canada, Iran, Britain among others. Though only Venezuela ventured into that uncharted territory with Petro coin.

MasterCard launched a pilot project enabling cardholders to cash out of bitcoin on to a MasterCard, according to Mr. Sarker, who specifically stressed that the company is not exposed to Bitcoin price fluctuations and very conscious of its reputational risks. The company is actively engaged in researching blockchain technology and cryptocurrency with one 30 patents filed by MasterCard Labs.

Earlier this month Visa's CFO criticised crypto, saying that they are speculative investments operating in an unsettled regulatory environment.

At the same time, both Mastercard and Visa reclassified cryptocurrency purchasing transactions as cash advances, making it more expensive for users to buy crypto with their cards.