Ajay Banga, the CEO of Mastercard, has recently called all "government" cryptomonies "junk". Digital currencies are virtually a direct competition to companies such as MasterCard. Asked by Economic Times, Banga has been rather scathing about it.
"Partial, me?" "
After the CEO of JPMorgan who gave us his totally enlightened and impartial opinion, it is the turn of the CEO of Mastercard to play the alarmists and leave his objectivity aside.
In an interview with Economic Times, Ajay Banga was asked what he thought was the best direction to take regarding cryptomonas. The latter obviously pose a real problem for a company such as Mastercard which works in close collaboration with central banks.
His answer did not finally surprise anyone;
"If the government creates virtual currencies, we will manage to be part of it. We will provide means to guide the currency transfer from the customer to the merchant. The currencies under government mandate are interesting. Any non-government currency is a waste. "Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard
To this he added the standard batch of complaints systematically addressed to the Bitcoin:
"If I pay for a bottle of water in BTC, one day it will be a bottle, while the next day it will be 9000 bottles. It does not work. All currencies need stability and transparency, otherwise you will find all the illegal activities in the world. Why do you think the ransom of the Wannacry virus was collected in Bitcoin? Why is China attacking the Bitcoin? "
In a few sentences, we thus find the standard arguments. The bitcoin is too volatile and serves mostly crime.
Banga is a big bonnet in the system, and the emergence of digital currencies could push him to see his profits severely truncated.
The financial world on the brink of war
After John Hattaway, Jamie Dimon or - to a lesser extent - Ray Dalio, here is a new actor in the banking world who wipes his feet on the crypto monnaies. If we look at the same arguments in a loop, with no more foundation, may be irritating, let us not forget that the concern of the big financial institutions is only one more proof that the system is working, frightening, and that it possesses an incredible disruptive potential.