Both risk and opportunity across the payments industry are being increasingly defined by what happens in a millisecond—and what doesn’t.

“What AI (artificial intelligence) has done is enable us, in that real time, in that moment, to process multiple input signals and create a composite view of whatever decision we’re making,” Kaushik Gopal, executive vice president, insights and intelligence at Mastercard, told PYMNTS during a discussion for the April edition of the “What’s Next in Payments” series, “The Data Game.”

“Data isn’t a game,” Gopal said. “It’s foundational to our entire business.”

For a network like Mastercard handling billions of transactions, even marginal improvements in fraud detection, conversion or customer experience can translate into outsized impact. But those gains depend on data being both usable and responsibly governed.

Gopal described a “flywheel” model in which transactions generate data, data produces insights, and insights feed back into better decisions across the ecosystem. The catch is that this loop only works if participants believe in it.

“It’s all centered around one word, and that’s trust,” Gopal said. “Making sure that people in the ecosystem — consumers, merchants included — understand that we manage data based on principles of trust, privacy and transparency.”

Why Payments Success Hinges on Speed, Signals and Trust

If trust is the foundation for data to have its greatest effect, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming the engine. The shift in terms of real-world impact is less about novelty than it is about velocity.

“AI didn’t just arrive overnight—we’ve been using it for years,” Gopal said. “It’s a computational tool that allows us to accelerate the outcomes of converting data into useful and actionable insights.”

For example, while early fraud systems relied on static rules like thresholds that triggered approvals or declines, today, Mastercard processes multiple signals simultaneously, from behavioral patterns to geolocation, in real time. The decision window has shrunk to milliseconds.

This evolution from rules-based systems to time-series models, graph analytics and now AI has transformed the economics of decision-making. It’s no longer just about accuracy; it’s about balancing risk with experience. A false decline can be as costly as fraud itself, especially in eCommerce environments where friction leads to abandonment.

“Every interaction and transaction has to be viewed in its own context,” Gopal said, adding that this context spans three temporal layers: before, during and after the transaction.

What was once simple, like flagging a jewelry purchase in Thailand for a customer who never traveled, is now far more complex. Cross-border eCommerce has blurred geographic signals, requiring systems to interpret a richer set of variables, from IP addresses to merchant location and transaction currency.

In response, identity verification, behavioral analysis and post-event feedback loops (such as chargebacks) now can all contribute to a continuously evolving risk profile evaluated not in isolation but as part of a broader behavioral narrative.

“It creates a virtuous cycle in terms of how we manage fraud risk in the AI age,” Gopal said. “Converting data into insights gives us the intelligence to get ahead of bad actors.”

Winning With Data Over the Next Phase

While fraud prevention remains the most immediate use case of data application, Gopal also sees broader implications for customer experience. Data, in this view, becomes integral not just for dashboards or reports, but to power interactive, adaptive intelligence.

Instead of requiring expertise in analytics platforms, users ranging from bank executives to retail operators may increasingly rely on AI-driven interfaces that interpret data and recommend actions.

“The way our customers interact with our tools is going to fundamentally shift,” Gopal said. “You go from self-discovery to chat-assisted discovery to agentic support.”

Another consequential application of data that’s gaining momentum today lies in credit underwriting, particularly for “thin file” consumers and small businesses that lack traditional credit histories.

“The more data sets that you have and the better modeling techniques, the more you can start to support the areas that are underserved,” Gopal said.

By combining payment data, cash flow signals and open finance inputs, Mastercard aims to provide a more holistic view of financial health. The same capabilities that detect fraud such as pattern recognition, real-time analysis and multi-signal modeling can increasingly be leveraged to expand access to capital.

Enter the Agentic Economy

For payments networks, the emerging phase of agentic commerce and payments may mean rethinking everything from authentication protocols to fraud models, as transactions are no longer initiated directly by humans but by autonomous software acting on their behalf. The agentic era could also open new opportunities in areas like automated discovery, where agents negotiate offers on behalf of users in real time.

“You were identifying a consumer. Now you’re identifying an agent. New fields and new data elements are going to emerge in the transaction that didn’t exist before,” Gopal said.

This shift is already introducing new layers of complexity and new definitions of trust as identity extends to include digital agents, requiring a transition from know your customer (KYC) to what Gopal called “know your agent” (KYA).

As AI capabilities accelerate, the question for enterprises is not whether to adopt them, but how. Mastercard’s own advisory work with clients reveals a recurring challenge: prioritization. Attempting to do everything at once can often lead to failure. Instead, companies can work to better align data strategy, infrastructure and use cases with clear business objectives.

“Ensuring that you know what outcomes you want is really, really key,” Gopal said. “And having an execution partner to help you get you there is equally important.”

Equally important is discipline. “AI is only as good as the data that you have and how structured that data is,” he said, stressing that testing environments, sandboxing and incremental deployment remain essential even as competitive pressure pushes organizations to move faster.

Ultimately, the future of payments may hinge less on any single technology than on the interplay between trust, data and intelligence. Mastercard’s bet is that these elements will reinforce one another: Data fuels insight, insight improves outcomes and better outcomes strengthen trust.

Over the past decade, digital credentials, mobile devices and real-time payment rails have altered how money moves and how people participate in commerce. Yet the evidence suggests that participation alone does not translate into resilience.

Mastercard’s latest commitment, outlined in its initiative to connect and protect 500 million consumers and small businesses by 2030, reflects that distinction between entry and durability.

From Access to Financial Health

Mastercard’s earlier efforts focused on expanding access, bringing large numbers of previously excluded users into the system through cards, wallets and acceptance networks. The current phase shifts attention toward what happens after that first connection.

Bunita Sawhney, chief consumer product officer at Mastercard, framed the issue in a recent interview with PYMNTS. “We do still have many people and businesses who do not have sufficient access, and those who do have access don’t have really frequent usage and healthy behaviors to help them get to financial health,” she said.

Financial health, in this context, extends beyond account ownership. It includes the ability to use tools regularly, build a transaction history and progress toward services such as credit or insurance. It also reflects whether consumers and businesses can withstand financial stress without exiting the system.

Why Gaps Persist

Despite gains in connectivity, structural barriers remain. In some regions, infrastructure has lagged. In others, the challenge lies in fragmented ecosystems where banks, networks, governments and technology providers have not aligned incentives or capabilities.

Sawhney pointed to a dual problem: access and usage. “There’s a job to be done on both sides,” she said.

She said 1 in 3 consumers do not have the ability to withstand an unexpected financial shock. That fragility reflects limited savings, irregular income and a lack of tools that support budgeting and planning. It also reflects gaps in acceptance. When merchants do not accept digital payments, consumers revert to cash, which interrupts the habit formation needed for sustained engagement.

Trust, Confidence and Behavior

The distinction between trust and confidence plays a central role in financial inclusion. Trust concerns whether individuals believe they can manage a financial tool. Confidence relates to whether they expect the system to protect them when something goes wrong.

Without those assurances, consumers may withdraw funds immediately or avoid digital channels altogether. That behavior limits the data trails and engagement that support access to broader financial services, Sawhney told PYMNTS.

Protection mechanisms, including dispute rights, fraud safeguards and refund processes, help address that hesitation. They also contribute to a sense of continuity that encourages repeated use.

Expanding connectivity now involves more than traditional banking relationships. Wallets, telecommunications providers and government-backed payment systems have become primary entry points in many markets.

Sawhney cited examples such as Brazil’s Pix and India’s UPI, where infrastructure has enabled scale but not always sustained usage. “Wallets are increasingly becoming the first place a consumer might go when they’re getting their first account,” she said.

Mastercard’s approach includes simplified products designed for affordability and distribution through nontraditional channels. The aim is to meet consumers and small businesses where they already transact, rather than requiring them to adopt unfamiliar systems.

Small Businesses at the Center

Small businesses sit at the intersection of consumer demand and financial infrastructure, yet they face similar barriers. Limited access to digital tools, combined with exposure to fraud and cyber risk, constrains their growth.

“Sixty percent of small businesses that endure a cyberattack … six months later, don’t make it,” Sawhney said. That vulnerability underscores the need for embedded protections and straightforward tools.

Digitization itself offers immediate benefits. Moving from cash-based processes to digital acceptance creates transaction records, improves visibility into cash flow and supports planning. “When we shift a business into a digital solution, that is a hurdle that we’ve helped overcome,” she told PYMNTS.

Protecting Participation

Security concerns can deter both consumers and merchants from deeper engagement. Rising fraud and cyber threats introduce friction at precisely the point where systems require trust to scale.

Protection, therefore, is not an adjunct to access but a prerequisite for it. Mastercard’s efforts include integrating safeguards into products and extending support through partnerships that address both technical and behavioral risks.

As ecosystems expand, the question of who owns the customer relationship becomes less clear. Banks, networks, wallets and platforms each contribute distinct functions.

Sawhney emphasized that no single entity can address the challenge alone. “This is not only a Mastercard game,” she said. “We need to be sharing information, we need to be sharing best practices, and we need to partner to service the customer.”

That approach has led to the formation of a coalition that brings together financial institutions, technology providers, governments and nongovernmental organizations. The objective is to coordinate efforts across the lifecycle of financial participation.

The scale of the task remains substantial, even after significant progress. The combination of digital infrastructure, behavioral tools and coordinated partnerships will determine whether the next phase delivers lasting outcomes.

Sawhney underscored the unfinished nature of the effort. “We’re really proud of where we’ve gotten to so far,” she said. “But we are really intentional about the work ahead, and we’re looking forward to helping bring people safely through the system.”

This effort will help provide financial resilience to more of the 2 billion people who remain underbanked or unbanked, the company said in a Monday (April 6) press release.

“Financial health doesn’t happen all at once,” Jon Huntsman, vice chair and president, strategic growth at Mastercard, and Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, said in the release. “It’s a journey, from obtaining a payment credential and building transaction history to accessing more advanced services like credit, loans or insurance that help people absorb shocks and manage risks.

“Paths may differ, but secure infrastructure, confident digital engagement, and an expanding credit profile are what make financial resilience possible,” they said.

As Mastercard works to connect more people and small business, the company will leverage its Essential Debit and Essential Prepaid programs that are live in Nigeria and Colombia and will expand to more countries within months; its acceptance and issuance offerings for small businesses; its support for a growing network of digital wallets and partners; and its resources that help small businesses better understand and manage cyber risk, according to the release.

In addition, Mastercard recently launched the Global Financial Health Coalition, which brings together financial institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), telecommunications companies, wallet providers and other industry leaders to promote healthy financial behavior and long-term resilience for consumers and small businesses.

When announcing the coalition in November, Mastercard said the group will help consumers and businesses around the world use digital tools to enhance their financial health and resilience.

Mastercard’s role is “to build the road that makes the digital economy work for everyone by leveraging our innovation, network, partnerships and convening power,” Huntsman and Lambert said in the Monday press release.

In another recent move, Mastercard said in February that it launched a money movement partnership with mobile communications and connectivity company Ericsson that will help telecom service providers, banks and FinTechs expand digital wallet capabilities, introduce new payment services, and serve unbanked or underbanked communities.

The 2019 acquisition for approximately $3.2 billion was Mastercard’s largest at the time, aimed at enhancing its account-to-account and instant payment capabilities, particularly within the Nordic region and broader Europe. The deal encompassed Nets’ Corporate Services business, including its real-time payment infrastructure, clearing and e-billing solutions. Now, Mastercard plans to unwind this deal by selling off the real-time payments unit, while maintaining its broader “multi-rail” strategy that increasingly integrates digital assets.

This strategic re-evaluation appears to be driven by a confluence of factors, primarily the intensifying competitive and regulatory landscape in European real-time payments, which has pressured economic returns and diminished the unit’s centrality to Mastercard’s long-term growth.

Simultaneously, Mastercard has been aggressively expanding its footprint in the digital assets space. A prime example is its recent anticipated acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK, valued at up to $1.8 billion by 2026. Divesting the Nets unit could free up capital and management bandwidth, allowing Mastercard to channel resources into strategically aligned, higher-growth assets like BVNK and other on-chain payment capabilities.

Investors and analysts largely view the BVNK deal as an extension of Mastercard’s multi-rail strategy into programmable, on-chain payment infrastructure, cross-border treasury, and stablecoin settlement, which are areas perceived as offering greater growth potential and defensibility compared to some legacy instant payment infrastructures.

PYMNTS has extensively covered Mastercard’s deepening involvement in the digital economy and its multi-rail approach. Recent coverage has highlighted the company’s various initiatives in open banking, cross-border payments innovation, and its efforts to integrate blockchain technology into its core offerings. This move to potentially divest the Nets assets aligns with Mastercard’s evolving strategy to navigate a rapidly changing payments landscape, prioritizing innovation in digital assets and stablecoins as key drivers for future growth.

Announced Thursday (March 5) the company is introducing Verifiable Intent, an open-source, standards-based framework designed for agentic commerce. The idea is to link a consumer’s identity, their specific instructions and the outcome of a transaction into a single, tamper-resistant record. It creates a cryptographic audit trail that all parties can consult if a dispute arises.

Mastercard says the framework is designed to be agnostic to existing agentic protocols, meaning it is intended to work alongside infrastructure already being built by Google and others.

“As autonomy increases, trust cannot be implied,” said Pablo Fourez, chief digital officer at Mastercard. “It must be proven. And if something goes wrong, everyone needs facts, not guesswork.”

Verifiable Intent is the latest addition to Mastercard Agent Pay, the company’s agentic payments program launched in 2024, which established the infrastructure for registering and authenticating AI agents before they transact on Mastercard’s network. The new framework adds an explicit proof layer on top of that, one that travels with the transaction and is intended to make dispute resolution faster and cleaner.

The trust challenge Mastercard is trying to address is real. PYMNTS Intelligence, for example, has found that the highest-ranked use case for agentic AI is dynamic budget reallocation based on fresh cost data. Roughly 43% of CFOs expect a high impact from using agents in some form to handle this function, with another 47% expecting moderate impact.

That’s the enterprise angle. When a consumer taps a card, intent is clear. When an AI agent acts on instructions given hours or days earlier, such as booking travel or reordering groceries, that clarity disappears. Fourez has framed this as a defining challenge for the industry.

“In this new payments paradigm,” he said, “trust becomes the product.” Whether a single company’s framework can become the industry standard for proving it is another question entirely.

Privacy is built into the specification, Mastercard says. Verifiable Intent uses a technique called Selective Disclosure, which shares only the minimum information needed with each party in a transaction, enough to verify authorization or resolve a dispute, but not more. The framework is designed to interoperate with Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a sign that Mastercard is positioning this as complementary infrastructure rather than a rival standard.

What gives the announcement additional heft is the partner list. Mastercard is open-sourcing the Verifiable Intent specification on GitHub and has secured commitments from Google, Fiserv, IBM, Checkout.com, Basis Theory and Getnet. Google’s endorsement was pointed.

“Strong, interoperable trust infrastructure like Verifiable Intent that is compatible with Agent Payments Protocol is a natural accelerator for scaling agentic commerce,” said Stavan Parikh, VP and general manager, payments at Google.

Other partners emphasized the practical merchant problem Verifiable Intent is trying to solve. Fiserv’s Sanjay Saraf said the framework “enables merchants to proactively reduce fraud, strengthen dispute outcomes, and maintain customer trust.” IBM’s Kristin Kirtley Silva said it makes user authorization “simple and secure, so agents can act safely across platforms,” and plans to align it with IBM’s orchestration layer for enterprise deployments. Checkout.com’s Meron Colbeci called it “an important move to ensure the right parties can cryptographically validate intent without oversharing sensitive data.”

The specification is built on standards from the FIDO Alliance, EMVCo, the Internet Engineering Task Force and the World Wide Web Consortium. Mastercard says it will deepen the framework over time through integration with its Verifiable Credentials platform, and will continue working with industry bodies on complementary standards for conversational AI in commerce. Integration into Mastercard Agent Pay’s intent APIs is expected in the coming months.

The open-source approach is a deliberate move. By publishing the specification publicly and inviting developers, merchants and payment enablers to contribute, Mastercard is betting that broad participation is what will make a trust standard stick.

Whether the industry coalesces around it remains to be seen. “As commerce becomes more autonomous,” Fourez said, “consumer protection must keep pace.”

 

Whether the product is a digital wallet, a payroll card or a specialized spending account, cards remain the practical on-ramp to consumer adoption. Yet most FinTechs do not hold banking licenses, which leaves them dependent on Bank Identification Number (BIN) sponsors to issue cards and connect to global payment networks.

That dependence has turned BIN sponsorship into a critical route to market. It has also exposed uneven quality across the ecosystem.

“BIN Sponsorship has been a hugely successful model in the U.K.,” Darren Deal, senior vice president for FinTech, government and digital partnerships at Mastercard, told PYMNTS. “You only have to look at the likes of Revolut, Monzo and Starling to see what’s possible, and this is about raising standards across the entire industry even further.”

Mastercard’s response is BIN Sponsor Plus, a new accreditation program unveiled last month, designed to formalize expectations around training, due diligence and operational rigor.

The initiative provides FinTechs with a clearer signal on which sponsors meet enhanced standards, while giving accredited partners access to dedicated Mastercard support.

From Deal’s perspective, timing matters. Technology has lowered the barrier for founders to build payment products, but choosing the right partner has grown more complicated.

“Technology is making it easier than ever for FinTechs and businesses which are looking to get into payments to turn a big idea into reality, but it can be difficult for them to identify the right partner when going to market,” he said.

By offering a curated framework, Mastercard is aiming to help founders “capitalize on the momentum in the U.K. and quickly go from ideation to execution,” Deal said.

Why BINs Sit at the Center

Bank Identification Numbers determine how transactions route, identify the issuing institution and enable secure movement of funds. Because FinTechs generally lack direct access to BINs, licensed sponsors act as the bridge. Under Mastercard’s scheme rules, those sponsors hold the principal issuing license and remain the network’s direct customers.

That structure also defines responsibility when something goes wrong.

“Purely from a Mastercard scheme perspective, the responsibility to remain compliant with local regulation, as well as with our own compliance and fraud rules, sits with our regulated BIN Sponsors who hold the principal Mastercard license,” Deal told PYMNTS. Sponsors also manage settlement and operational obligations tied to issuance. FinTechs, in turn, must work closely with those sponsors to meet their own requirements.

The arrangement places a premium on sponsor capability, which is precisely where Mastercard sees room for improvement.

Under BIN Sponsor Plus, participants voluntarily commit to standards that exceed industry baselines. “It means participants which are voluntarily adhering to enhanced standards of training requirements and due diligence above and beyond industry norms,” Deal said. In exchange, they receive tailored support from Mastercard teams, but accreditation is not permanent. “They also have to maintain those elevated standards to remain in the program,” Deal added.

Oversight does not stop after onboarding. Deal emphasized that training and due diligence requirements persist throughout the year, with the risk of removal if sponsors fall short.

Clearing Friction Without Closing Doors

Any accreditation model raises questions about access, pricing and negotiating leverage for early-stage companies. Deal said Mastercard is not trying to narrow the field.

“Ultimately, the same partnership choices which are available for FinTechs today will continue to be available to them,” he said. The program is meant to provide “clarity and reassurance, not limiting choice,” while signaling which partners meet higher operational expectations, according to Deal.

That distinction matters for founders navigating early commercial negotiations. The goal is not to dictate outcomes but to reduce uncertainty in a process that has often been opaque.

BIN Sponsor Plus also reflects Mastercard’s decision to begin in the U.K., a market Deal described as maintaining strong innovation momentum and ranking as the world’s second largest for FinTech funding. For Mastercard, the concentration of startups, capital and experienced sponsors made it a practical proving ground before considering expansion.

Measuring Whether the Model Works

Deal was explicit about how Mastercard plans to judge success. In the near term, he pointed to operational metrics such as reduced time to market and fewer customer complaints. Longer term, Mastercard expects commercial durability from the FinTechs launching through accredited partners, alongside a growing roster of qualified sponsors.

“In the short term, we’ll know the program is successful if we’re seeing improved operational efficiencies and results for participants,” he said, adding that an expanding pool of accredited partners over time would signal broader adoption.

BIN Sponsor Plus also sits alongside Mastercard Engage, Start Path and Product Express, but Deal said the immediate priority is execution in the U.K. before extending the framework elsewhere.

For Deal, the initiative reflects a pragmatic recalibration rather than a philosophical shift. BIN sponsorship will remain the gateway for most FinTech issuers. The difference now is a clearer structure around who carries responsibility, how standards are enforced and what outcomes matter.

“We’re focused on making this a success in the U.K. before considering expansion,” he said. “This is about elevating industry standards and providing clarity for aspirational businesses.”

Mastercard Fleet: Next Gen is designed for fleets of all sizes and brings together payments, data and controls, the company said in a Wednesday (Feb. 4) press release.

The portfolio provides global acceptance for fuel, electric vehicle charging, maintenance, tolling and ancillary fleet spend; network-based fleet data captured at the point of sale; digitally assigned and issued fleet cards; and integration with mobility platforms, acquirer networks and fleet management tools, according to the release.

With these tools, fleet managers can deploy smarter authorization controls and spend policies; use fleet data to better manage costs and improve forecasting; and monitor fraud and misuse in real time, the release said.

“Mastercard’s fleet solutions are designed to help specialist fleet issuers and payment providers bring advanced fleet capabilities to market faster, while reducing the complexity and investment typically required to build these capabilities,” Anouska Ladds, head of commercial and new payment flows, Asia Pacific at Mastercard, said in the release.

Mastercard executives said during a Thursday (Jan. 29) earnings call that the company continues to invest in infrastructure, data centers and global partnerships, alongside deeper expansion of services tied to cybersecurity, data and artificial intelligence.

In May, the company launched the Small Business Navigator program, a suite of digital tools, data and educational resources designed for small- to medium-sized businesses in the United States.

PYMNTS reported in February 2024 that fleet management was becoming a beacon of connectivity, having gone digital and found new ways to connect stakeholders.

In other developers in the space over the past year, NCR Voyix and WEX launched a partnership designed to enable WEX payment for commercial fuel transactions at NCR Voyix’s point-of-sale systems in the U.S.; Circle K and Car IQ teamed up to launch a mobile app for fleet operators that enables payments, helps drivers locate fuel stations and provides real-time visibility of transactions; and Visa added Apple Pay and Google Pay to its fleet cards, enabling Visa credentials to live inside the two wallets that power roughly 92% of the world’s NFC-ready smartphones.

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The initiative, titled “BIN Sponsor Plus,” aims to connect FinTechs and other businesses with a vetted network of financial institutions capable of facilitating rapid card program launches.

Bank Identification Number (BIN) sponsorship is a critical mechanism in the digital economy, allowing non-bank entities to access global payment networks without the regulatory and administrative overhead of becoming a licensed issuer. Under the new program, approved sponsors must adhere to enhanced standards regarding due diligence and training. In return, these partners receive specialized operational support and a “Partner Mark” from Mastercard signifying their accreditation.

The program launches with four founding participants: Transact Pay, PSI Pay, IDT Financial Services and Edenred Payment Solutions.

Darren Deal, Mastercard’s senior vice president for FinTech, government and digital partnerships, stated that the program provides a “ready-made list of best-in-class partners” to help companies scale efficiently. The sponsorship model has previously served as a launchpad for major U.K. challengers, including Monzo, Starling and Revolut, which utilized sponsors before becoming direct Mastercard issuers.

The initiative arrives as the U.K. solidifies its status as a global FinTech hub, with the sector generating 32.4 billion pounds ($45 billion) in revenue in 2024 and ranking as the second-largest market globally for funding.

The U.K. initiative aligns with a broader global framework Mastercard is implementing to formalize the complex web of relationships behind digital wallets and cards.

In a related industry analysis, the payments network highlighted the necessity of new oversight structures to manage the risk associated with non-bank issuers. While BINs have routed transactions and identified issuers since the 1970s, most FinTechs lack the regulatory status to manage them directly, making sponsorship essential for market access.

Rich Audet, Mastercard’s vice president of franchise customer enablement, emphasized that the updated guidelines are intended to “fuel new growth without compromising on our ability to manage and mitigate risk.”

This focus on transparency seeks to define clear roles for all parties, preventing operational fallout for sponsor banks and consumers should a startup fail. The urgency for robust standards is underscored by the sector’s rapid expansion; citing data from Boston Consulting Group, Mastercard noted that global FinTech revenues climbed 21% in the last year alone.

This new part of the program will focus on agent platforms and agentic enablement, agent-native tools and services, and emerging agentic payment flows.

Applications for the next cohort are open now, Mastercard said in a Tuesday (Jan. 20) press release.

It joins the existing Start Path programs that are focused on acceptance, blockchain and digital assets, emerging FinTech, open finance, small business and security solutions.

Start Path offers startups benefits that include connections with Mastercard’s global network of partners and customers, as well as access to opportunities to collaborate on new products and services, according to the release.

The startup engagement program was launched in 2014 and has grown to include more than 500 companies from 60 countries, per the release.

As of September, Start Path had brokered 15,000 global connections, and its participating startups had raised over $25 billion in capital after their time in the program, Mastercard said at the time.

When selecting startups to invite to join the program, Mastercard looks for a unique and proven solution, a strategic fit with its strategy and business, an investment raised with a product live in market and generating revenue, and founders with strong backgrounds who are passionate and ready to scale, according to a web page about Start Path.

Mastercard said in the Tuesday release that the expansion of Start Path will enable the company to “engage with innovative newcomers who can bring the cutting-edge technology, products and services that make agentic commerce essential for people and businesses.”

The company also announced in the release that it joined Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, which enables interoperability between AI agents and merchants, and that it is working with Microsoft to bring Mastercard Agent Pay to Copilot Checkout.

“Intelligent agents can accelerate the pace of commerce only if the foundation beneath them is predictable, secure and universally understood,” Mastercard said in the release. “That’s why we’re building the standards, partnerships and capabilities that allow innovation to move at full speed without losing the coordination that keeps the system flowing.”

The agreement, posted in a news release on Monday (Jan. 5), allows QNB to provide Mastercard payment solutions that are accepted both locally and internationally to individuals and businesses in Syria. This development follows a memorandum of understanding signed in September between Mastercard and the Central Bank of Syria, which focused on upgrading the country’s digital payment capabilities.

Adam Jones, division president for West Arabia at Mastercard, described the company as an “early investor” in a market undergoing transformation. “By empowering our partner banks, we are enabling millions of citizens to access modern financial services and laying the foundations for a robust, future-ready payments ecosystem,” Jones said. He noted that the initiative supports the country’s economic progress while adhering to regulatory and compliance standards.

Yousef Mahmoud Al-Neama, QNB’s group chief business officer, stated that the expansion aligns with the bank’s strategic plans for the region. Al-Neama characterized the Syrian market as “economically promising,” citing ongoing development and modernization within the local banking sector.

This expansion arrives amid a broader push to rebuild financial infrastructure in the Middle East. According to a Dec. 12 industry analysis by PYMNTS, digital payments are increasingly viewed by regional governments and global firms as essential “foundational infrastructure” rather than mere consumer conveniences. For post-sanction economies like Syria, these systems are prerequisites for restoring access to remittances, foreign investment and cross-border trade.

Mastercard is not the only major player reentering the market. As PYMNTS reported in December, Visa announced a partnership with the Central Bank of Syria to launch a “phased digitization plan,” aiming to introduce payment cards and digital wallets adhering to global standards. Leila Serhan, a senior vice president at Visa, characterized transparent payment systems as the “bedrock of economic recovery” capable of helping the country “leapfrog decades of legacy infrastructure development.”

These efforts follow the reported resumption of Syria’s access to the Swift financial messaging network in June, which enabled the country’s first international bank transfer since the onset of civil conflict in 2011. Data from the World Economic Forum indicates that digital transaction volumes in the wider region are projected to grow at double-digit rates, driven by such government-backed initiatives and modernization efforts.