According to Business Standard, Mastercard is expanding its value-added services business in India beyond its traditional payments network, as digital payment methods such as UPI continue to dominate the payments landscape. The company is focusing on cybersecurity, analytics, consulting, artificial intelligence (AI) and loyalty solutions, among others, as it seeks new growth avenues beyond its traditional payments network business. Gautam Aggarwal, division president, South Asia, Mastercard, told Business Standard that "Our focus on services for the last many years was not as deep as it was in other markets. So we are changing that." Globally, nearly 41 per cent of the company's revenue comes from its non-core businesses, with the company following a three-pronged strategy focused on consumer payments, commercial payments and services in India.
According to the latest announcement, Mastercard is expanding its settlement network to support regulated stablecoins, marking a significant step toward bringing blockchain-based payments deeper into the global financial system. The company plans to offer stablecoin, weekend and holiday settlement as demand grows for real-time movement of money. Mastercard will initially support settlement using Circle's USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD, USDG and USDP, Ripple's RLUSD and SoFiUSD across blockchain networks including Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Polygon (POL), Base, Arbitrum (ARB), Canton, Tempo, and XRPL. The new capabilities will operate alongside existing fiat settlement processes and are designed to give financial institutions more flexibility in managing liquidity, moving the network closer to an always-on model where value can be transferred and settled around the clock. As reported by The Block, ARQ (formerly DolarApp), CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank, and Nuvei are expected to be among the first institutions supporting stablecoin settlement optionality in the United States and Latin America, with further expansion planned through 2026.
According to Business Standard, UPI accounts for more than 85 per cent of the retail digital payments market, while the merchant discount rate (MDR) on UPI transactions continues to remain nil. Gautam Aggarwal explained that "If I am going to be a payments network in India, which is what UPI, RuPay, Mastercard, Visa, Amex — all of us do — as another money-moving system, then I will not be able to compete because I will have to be the lowest-cost player. Instead, I have to create a value-add." When asked whether a potential Mastercard-UPI linkage was being explored, Aggarwal declined to comment but said the company would like to participate in the ecosystem. He noted that the dominance of UPI and the growing traction of RuPay had not eroded Mastercard's market share, but had instead expanded the overall payments market. Speaking with The Economic Times, Aggarwal confirmed the company's focus on India's expanding credit-on-UPI market and stated that "We would like to participate in the ecosystem in a measured manner. However, participation involves policy decisions and regulatory considerations."
According to Business Standard, Mastercard's India business has broadly matched its global growth trajectory of around 20-25 per cent annually over the past several years. Aggarwal explained that "For a year and a half, we had a bit of an embargo-related issue. If you take those two years out, we have been growing year-on-year in that very healthy range." The company sees substantial opportunities in India's card segment, where only around 50 million individuals hold credit cards in a country of nearly 1.5 billion people, with cash usage remaining high. Credit card transaction volume in April 2026 rose 19.2 per cent year-on-year to 556.20 million, while the total value of transactions increased 6.6 per cent year-on-year to ₹1.97 trillion, as reported by Business Standard. Speaking with The Economic Times, Aggarwal noted that "The recent decline in card numbers was largely due to a deliberate clean-up of inactive cards across the industry, supported by regulators and issuers. Around 40% of cards in the system were inactive."
According to The Economic Times, Mastercard is targeting India's tier 3 and tier 4 markets for future growth, moving beyond traditional affluent consumer segments in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. The company is developing solutions for low-cost acceptance infrastructure, soundbox solutions and products aimed at SMEs, women and farmers. Aggarwal explained that "We are working with three banks on new solutions that will provide access to cash-flow and financing needs for consumers who traditionally may not have qualified for conventional credit products." The company has grown its commercial payments business five-fold over three years, focusing on SMEs, large corporates, government payments and tax payments. Speaking with The Economic Times, Aggarwal highlighted that "India has about one billion bank accounts. Around 700 million are UPI-enabled, but only about half of those are actively used. Another 300 million accounts are not even UPI-enabled." He noted that "Among the 350 million active UPI users, only around 55 million are unique credit card holders, compared with China, where about 350 million consumers actively use credit cards, India's credit penetration remains very low."
According to Coinbase, stablecoins have changed how users, businesses, developers, and AI agents move money by allowing instant settlement at any hour. As reported by Coinbase, payment adoption needs a stronger reserve infrastructure behind the tokens, with reserve management, liquidity management, issuance, and redemption systems becoming more important as stablecoins handle more payment and settlement activity. The company stated that stablecoin issuers need tools built for these functions rather than relying only on older banking and cash management channels. Coinbase said stablecoin growth also requires stronger infrastructure for managing the assets that support those tokens, with stablecoin creation and redemption increasingly relying on a broader mix of high quality cash equivalent assets, including Treasuries, ETFs, money market funds, and tokenized versions of those instruments. The rollout comes as competition intensifies among payment networks and financial institutions seeking to modernize settlement infrastructure, with Circle, Ripple, Paxos and other stablecoin issuers increasingly positioning their products as alternatives to legacy correspondent banking rails for cross-border payments and treasury operations.
