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How does a carousel of currencies -- cash, credit, crypto, installment -- attached to a single payment credential sound to you? Well, that's what Mastercard is touting with its One Credential, noting a particular interest in attracting Gen Z.
Mastercard announced it's partnering with payment processor Fiserv to bring its recently announced stablecoin, FIUSD, to the Mastercard network. That means Mastercard One Credential users will be able to choose to pay with FIUSD, cash or credit at checkout -- all with one payment option.
"To date, stablecoins have largely been a store of value," Takis Georgakopoulos, chief operating officer at Fiserv, said in a statement. "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."
Mastercard announced earlier this month that it had partnered with PayPal to offer installment payments on its One Credential, which could offer a lot of flexibility for choosing payments. That could be particularly appealing to a Gen Z audience that embraces technology along with alternative payment options such as Buy Now Pay Later.
Mastercard One Credential was launched back in February, but doesn't seem to be available yet. We reached out to Mastercard for clarification and will update this story with the company's response.
Here's what the new payment option could look like and how to decide if you should use it.
What is Mastercard One Credential?
Mastercard One Credential is Mastercard's way of housing different payment options under one roof. So, before you make a purchase, you can choose between debit, credit, BNPL or stablecoin.
You'll also be able to set spending limits per fund type, according to Mastercard. If you want to pay your daily expenses under a certain amount with credit, you can have it set to automatically choose that fund type. Expenses over that limit can be set to a different currency type, and so on and so forth.
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