NEW YORK, United States — More than half a century in the global market offering payments on plastic, Mastercard remains bullish on plans to stay ahead of the industry as it connects customers to newer and more immersive technologically driven products and solutions.

Chief technology officer at Mastercard George Maddaloni said the push behind the company’s decades of payment evolution seeks to allow for multiple interaction with the brand while offering greater inclusion and commerce for customers globally.

Supporting billions of customers on its network, Mastercard’s technology now connects from millions of acceptance points across the globe with its services delivered through a suite of over 600 products.

“Mastercard has always had a payment network that operates at huge scale and one that is largely operated by technology. When we think about technology and the strategy for technology at Mastercard, it’s right up there with our business strategy because we are not just a credit card company…we are now a technology company and our customers will see that with the addition of every application,” Maddaloni said.

“There are many areas of technology that we are now working on, from artificial intelligence to machine learning and blockchain as well as cloud and quantum computing,” he told journalists on Monday during a round-table session held as part of the company’s media tour of its New York Tech Hub.

Currently working on the use of APIs as another area in which it wants to further connect with customers, Maddaloni said these when used with payment solutions will help to provide cleaner, richer data and a much better experience outside of transactions. Quantum capabilities, which is believed to be a little more futuristic, he, however, said will take some time for banks and enterprises to use, especially now as number of pilots get underway.

Touting Mastercard’s exploration of these later technologies as cutting edge, the senior executive said they will allow for faster and more seamless transactions while providing more meaningful data to connect with customers. The solutions, which feature a number of fraud prevention capabilities, it is hoped, will also significantly help to scale back the global tsunami of cybercrimes.

With the company being able to use its AI-enabled solutions to detect and stop over US$20 billion worth of fraud-related transactions last year, the need to double down with more of these technologies, Mastercard executives believe, will further counter the 60 per cent increase in scams detected across various forms of payments.

“Through our constant surveillance and detection efforts, we are projecting to grow that US$20 billion worth of fraud detection to as much as US$100 billion by 2030,” senior Vice-President of Innovation Nima Sepasy said.

Dubbed a major challenge in the payments ecosystem, the cost of cybercrime, experts believe, could climb to an estimated US$10.5 trillion by 2025.

Chris Reid, executive vice-president of identity solutions at Mastercard, in further underscoring the use of biometrics as another of those useful tools, said they will likewise help with varying degrees of fraud detection, especially in digital commerce.

“Our chip on card and various levels of authentication are all identity features which helps to pick up on fraud and to secure digital transactions,” he said.

George Maddaloni (left), chief technology officer at Mastercard, responds to questions from moderator Pedro Alves, vice-president of global communications, during a media round-table discussion held on Monday at Mastercard’s New York Tech Hub in the US.