MasterCard Partners with Circle to Extend Stablecoin Adoption to EEMEA Region
MasterCard, a financial services corporation, partners with Circle, a US-based stablecoin company, to extend stablecoin adoption to the Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) region.
According to MasterCard, this initiative marks the first time merchants and acquirers in the EEMEA region use USDC across Mastercard’s global payments network, providing them with the opportunity to benefit from MasterCard’s trusted technology, reach and scale.
Notably, this development will allow acquiring institutions to receive their settlement in USDC or EURC, a fully-reserved stablecoin issued by regulated affiliates of Circle, which they can then use to pay merchants. This system promotes cutting-edge cross-border trade which is cheaper, faster, and more reliable than the traditional way.
In the press release, MasterCard stated that the Arab Financial Services and Eazy Financial Services will be the first to benefit from this expanded effort. This effort further asserts Mastercard’s role in connecting blockchain-native crypto assets with traditional fiat commerce infrastructure.
“This is a key move for Mastercard. Our strategic goal is to integrate stablecoins into the financial mainstream by investing in the infrastructure, governance, and partnerships to support this exciting payment evolution from fiat to tokenized and programmable money,” said Dimitrios Dosis, president, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Mastercard.
Dimitrios Dosis added that MasterCard, in collaboration with Circle’s innovative approaches, is playing a key role in integrating the company’s decades of experience in security and compliance to the stablecoin space.
While commending the partnership, Samer Soliman, CEO of Arab Financial Service (AFS), said that the innovation will supply AFS’s clients with a lasting infrastructure to stay competitive in an era of continuous market transformation.
Moreover, this latest partnership signifies the existing efforts put up by Circle and Mastercard in the region to promote a crypto-friendly industry; as the two companies had previously promoted crypto card solutions in partnership with Bybit and S1LKPAY, which use USDC to settle transactions. #MasterCard Partners with Circle to Extend Stablecoin Adoption to EEMEA Region#
