Mastercard's Irish unit looks beyond digital payments to blockchain and AI

Mastercard's Irish subsidiary is increasingly focused on developing products and services that are are built on so-called "deep tech" such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, the company has said. Speaking to The Irish Times, Ken Moore, who lead's Mastercard's R&D initiatives globally, said the company's Dublin-based unit was moving beyond its initial focus of developing digital payments solutions to the wider group. He said the business was now looking to go beyond the hype that surrounds new technologies such as blockchain to develop "real, grounded services and products" that would be rolled out across the wider group. "This is not exploratory work for us," said Mr Moore. Mastercard, which is the second-largest payments company globally, has significantly grown its Irish business in recent years, after deciding to locate much of its research and development work in Ireland.