MA News & Events

Veon (VEON) and Mastercard (MA) collaborate to accelerate the development of inclusive, intelligent and accessible financial services across Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. The collaboration is designed to bring together VEON's local digital platforms, customer reach, data-driven capabilities and emerging VEON Digital Finance strategy with Mastercard's global payments network, technology and financial services expertise. Together, the organizations intend to explore the development of a generation of financial services, including AI-powered credit scoring, embedded finance and digital wallets, subject to applicable regulatory requirements. The solutions will also provide merchant services, loyalty and remittances for consumers, small businesses and enterprises across VEON's markets.The collaboration is expected to begin with pilots in Ukraine and Kazakhstan with potential expansion across VEON's other markets. Through Mastercard's global network, the companies also intend to explore opportunities to reach people in markets where VEON does not yet operate.

Circle Internet (CRCL) shares are down $10.12, or 13%, to $65.84 in Tuesday morning trading after a consortium backed by some of the biggest names in payments, banking and crypto unveiled Open USD, a new stablecoin designed to challenge incumbents such as USDC. The new digital dollar is launched by Open Standard, an independent company whose founding partners include Stripe, Coinbase (COIN), Mastercard (MA), Visa (V) and BlackRock (BLK). The announcement follows a CoinDesk report earlier this month that Stripe, Visa and Mastercard were among the companies backing a new stablecoin platform, with Coinbase also weighing participation.