At a time when the U.S. has declared trade wars against its biggest partners, Mastercard said today that it is launching a new platform that can cut through and allow trillions of dollars in cross-border business to continue.
What's going on: Michael Froman, Mastercard vice chairman, tells Axios that the platform — called Track — allows businesses and their suppliers to carry out due diligence, contracts, payment, delivery and more. "At a time that governments are having trouble breaking down barriers, the private sector can step in," Froman says.
The details: The platform will include a newsfeed and connections to 150 million companies in 76 countries, in addition to more than 500 legal compliance programs, he says. It is launching in Singapore in January.
What it's disrupting: In 2016, $58 trillion of business-to-business transactions around the world were conducted on paper, Froman says. The disruption will be allowing such business to be done automatically. "It will be all in one place so you don't have to look everywhere for it," he says.