Mastercard CEO Sees Stablecoins Speeding Up Cross-Border Payments
Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said Friday, October 9, that cross-border transfers are the clearest current use case for stablecoins and the area where the company is seeing the most traction. In a Bloomberg TV interview in London, he said conventional cross-border payments can take days and often carry unclear fees. Faster transfers, he argued, could help companies manage working capital more efficiently.
Mastercard has also been building stablecoin settlement into its existing payments infrastructure. In June, it announced plans to let partners settle card transactions using regulated stablecoins alongside traditional currencies, including options for intraday, weekend and holiday settlement. Supported tokens include Circle’s USDC and PayPal’s PYUSD, as well as stablecoins from Paxos, Ripple and SoFi. Mastercard said the options are designed to improve settlement flexibility while preserving its existing security, fraud protections and dispute processes.
Other payment networks are testing similar applications. In a recent pilot, Lloyds used USDC to settle $750,000 in obligations with Visa, with funds reaching Visa in under an hour, including over a weekend. The test focused on institutional settlement rather than the entire retail payment process. Wider adoption will depend on regulation, interoperability and integration with established payment systems.
Why it matters
Faster settlement could help businesses reduce payment delays and manage international cash flows more efficiently. Mastercard's strategy also signals growing institutional interest in stablecoins as payment infrastructure beyond cryptocurrency trading.
