Mastercard rolls out anti-scam program for merchants and expands stablecoin settlement capabilities

Mastercard said it is introducing a new Scam Merchant Monitoring Program aimed at reducing fraud losses tied to scam merchant activity. The program is designed to require greater scrutiny by acquiring banks, which are the institutions that sign merchants and route card and payment transactions.

According to the report, the approach pushes acquiring banks to investigate suspected fraud within strict timelines after potential scam behavior is detected. Mastercard did not outline in the report the specific detection methods, the exact time windows, or the consequences for noncompliance, leaving implementation details unclear.

Separately, Mastercard also said it is expanding stablecoin payment infrastructure, with a focus on stablecoin settlement support. Stablecoins are digital tokens intended to maintain a stable value, typically pegged to assets such as the U.S. dollar, and “settlement support” generally refers to the ability to move value through systems that settle transactions using these tokens.

The update suggests Mastercard is continuing to build rails that can incorporate stablecoin-based flows into broader payments operations. While the report indicates expansion, it does not specify which stablecoin networks or partners are involved, or how the company’s stablecoin-enabled settlement would be used by issuers, acquirers, or merchants in practice.

In the scam-program context, Mastercard’s role is notable because the network sits between issuing banks (which provide card accounts to consumers) and acquiring banks (which handle merchants). If acquiring banks are required to act quickly on suspected scam merchants, Mastercard is effectively using its ecosystem position to influence fraud governance across multiple parties, not only within a single bank’s risk team.

For the stablecoin effort, Mastercard’s move reflects a broader industry push to improve speed and programmability in settlement, especially for cross-border and high-volume payment use cases. Even so, details matter for market participants: stablecoin settlement typically raises questions around custody, compliance, and how transaction records map to existing card and account-based systems.

The company did not provide additional disclosures in the reported item about expected timelines for rollout of the Scam Merchant Monitoring Program, whether it is mandatory or opt-in by bank, or any measurable performance targets. Similarly, the stablecoin expansion was described at a high level, with no information on partner entities, supported token types, or regional scope.

What to watch next is whether Mastercard follows up with more granular guidance, such as program requirements for acquiring banks, implementation milestones, and any technical or partnership announcements tied to stablecoin settlement expansion. Those specifics will likely determine how quickly customers and partners can operationalize the changes and how directly they may influence fraud loss trends or settlement adoption.