Plastic isn’t the future for Mastercard. Contactless in-store payments are rising, and “card not present” purchases (online or recurring) leaped to about 45% of the company’s transactions in 2020—a bright spot in a year in which Mastercard transactions overall rose little, and its $15.3 billion in revenue represented a 9% drop. But there’s opportunity in Mastercard’s push into the $120 trillion business-to-business payments market, as well as its work on digital and cryptocurrencies—including collaboration with national governments. In February, the Bahamas partnered with the company to launch the world’s first prepaid card linked to a national digital currency.
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