# Mastercard expands consulting with crypto-dedicated practices

Continuing its goal to pursue a spot within the crypto industry, Mastercard recently announced that the firm is expanding its consulting business with practices that are dedicated to crypto.

In the announcement, Mastercard’s data & services president Raj Seshadri says that the financial institution will continue to help clients navigate the ever-changing world of finance, and help them identify challenges and anticipate what is coming next.

“Over the past 20 years, we’ve worked with our customers across banking, fintech, retail, travel and other sectors, helping them understand and navigate every challenge and opportunity thrown their way.”

The firm’s consulting efforts target banks and merchants that need assistance when adopting crypto. This includes helping create crypto-enabled loyalty programs and developing strategies for crypto and NFT integration. Apart from this, Mastercard will use its partnerships with “digitally native firms” to offer crypto solutions and help businesses enter new markets.

Additionally, the global financial institution is also focusing on assisting central banks as they explore the creation of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). According to Mastercard, its testing platform allows central banks to perform research, testing and consultation with experts in payment systems, regulation and governance before launching their CBDCs.

Related: ConsenSys launches Rollups for privacy-enabled transactions on Ethereum blockchain with support of Mastercard

In December 2021, Mastercard’s Liza Oakes, executive vice president of market development, had a chat with Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief Kristina Cornèr at Global Impact Week. According to Oakes, aside from CBDCs, the firm is also looking into “stablecoins and how to support their developments.” Oakes also recognized that there are security challenges in the realm of NFTs and mentioned that the company is developing solutions for this.

Last month, Mastercard partnered with Coinbase to allow non-crypto users to be able to purchase NFTs with their credit cards, without setting up a wallet and buying Ethereum (ETH). With this, purchasing NFTs in the Coinbase NFT marketplace is simplified for crypto beginners who want to use their fiat.