Mastercard CFO: Lack of Crypto Wallet Funding Is Partly Why Cross-Border Transaction Growth Is In Decline

Quarterly cross-border transaction growth for Mastercard declined by 2% over the last year partly due to the lack of customers using the service to purchase cryptocurrencies, according to Mastercard's CFO. During the May earnings call, Mastercard's CFO Martina Hund-Mejean revealed that quarterly cross-border transaction growth for the company is down by 2% from the first quarter.

Hund-Mejean has attributed this lack of cross-border payment growth to drop in crypto-wallet funding.

"This is due to the recent drop-off in crypto wallet funding. We expect cross-border growth to moderate somewhat."

This ban has, in turn, caused a domino effect with smaller banks like Capital One and Citigroup following their lead, potentially contributing to the decline in crypto wallet funding transactions.

Despite this slight dip in growth, Mastercard stock continues to climb with a 3% gain after the reported profits beat Wall Street expectations with price trading at $186.48.

While the short-term effect caused by the lack of crypto purchasing through the platform has marginally decreased cross-border transaction growth, cryptocurrency based card vendors are primed to assist the payment platform in establishing a strong presence in the cryptocurrency sector - should Mastercard choose to support it.

While such integration would provide greater usability for cryptocurrencies in allowing users to transact with any preexisting merchants, Mastercard appears to have no interest in taking part in this level of the financial sector.

Mastercard cryptocurrency debit cards are not a new concept - companies such as Wirex, CoinsBank and Wagecan current support Mastercard transactions with varying fee structures.

The recent growth of Bitcoin-enabled ATMs and point of sales have brought into question the place of such systems within the economic framework, as most charge excess fees to access the Mastercard network.

Whether this occurs through widespread adoption of crypto-powered point of sale systems or the implementation of crypto-enabled payment gateways such as Mastercard depends heavily on whether these financial services decide to embrace cryptocurrencies moving forward.