- Mastercard is making moves outside of cards with pushes into services for food and healthcare.
- “We’re adding different use cases that aren’t payment related, we’re leveraging the infrastructure we have, and we’re getting into new industries,” Jess Turner, the executive vice president of product and innovation at Mastercard, told Business Insider.
- Mastercard’s blockchain solution Provenance will give shoppers visibility into the supply chain of seafood.
- Mastercard’s Healthcare Solutions will target fraud and data security in the healthcare space.
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Mastercard has been on a bit of a rebranding mission, hoping that by dropping the “Mastercard” from its logo, it will be known for more than just credit cards. Today, at the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas, Mastercard announced some new places outside of its core credit card business where it’s hoping to gain traction.
Through acquisitions, partnerships, and redeployment of existing technologies, Mastercard is entering new ecosystems where they aren’t necessarily competitors.
“We’re adding different use cases that aren’t payment related, we’re leveraging the infrastructure we have, and we’re getting into new industries,” Jess Turner, the executive vice president of product and innovation at Mastercard, told Business Insider.
At an investment community meeting in September, Mastercard’s CEO Ajay Banga had emphasized the ways the credit card network is looking to do more, saying: “I think we were basically a credit and debit card processing player. That has changed completely. And I think we’re on a journey that’s got another long run rate to go with.”
Blockchain shrimp makes its debut
Provenance, Mastercard’s blockchain solution, brings transparency into the food supply chain. Partnering with Envisible, a company that enables visibility in food systems, Mastercard will power a blockchain called Wholechain, which will provide supermarkets with the ability to trace the origin of the seafood they stock.
Business Insider got a sneak peak at Provenance in September, at a technology showcase during its Investor Day. At the showcase, the proof of concept was a bowl of cocktail shrimp. By scanning a QR code attached to a toothpick, we saw where and when the shrimp was caught, and where it went before arriving at the New York Stock Exchange that Thursday.
In early 2020, Provenance will enable shoppers at pilot grocer Food City to scan seafood packages to see the journey of a fish, from the time it was caught to when it arrived at the store.
“It will allow the store to show consumers where that seafood actually originated from,” Turner said. Provenance will give grocers and their shoppers insights like whether a product is organic, or if it was produced in an environmentally conscious way. The technology could also help pinpoint issues in the supply chain if there were to be a recall.
With the pilot roll out, Provenance will be used to track shrimp, salmon, and other seafood, though Mastercard says it could be applied to other products.
“You could do it for other food products, you could do it for high value items, you could do it for pharmaceuticals, the list goes on and on,” Turner said.
Healthcare play
Mastercard is also looking to healthcare as an industry where it can apply its technologies with the launch of Mastercard Healthcare Solutions. With that, Mastercard is offering its existing machine learning, artificial intelligence, and biometric capabilities.
Using Mastercard’s Test and Learn technology, healthcare systems can use a patient’s payment history predict patient billing patterns and determine payment methods.
“It will allow the providers a better way to bill that user,” said Turner.
AI comes in with fraud prevention, especially as pertains to claims management. “Partners can use this AI asset to asses new providers, reduce onboarding risk, or address omni-channel fraud,” said Turner.
Mastercard is also offering biometric technology to protect patient information. Biometrics will be used to authenticate patients during new account enrollment, and secure mobile access to healthcare accounts.
“Health information is a big deal for companies everywhere, and using the assets that we have, we can help make sure that we’re protecting that data,” said Turner.
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