Mastercard and PayPal have announced a deepened collaboration centred around Mastercard’s recently launched One Credential — a streamlined, unified payments solution.
Mastercard and PayPal partner
The enhanced partnership allows PayPal to integrate Mastercard’s One Credential capabilities into its own payments ecosystem, providing users with a single digital identity to access a wide array of payment methods.
Whether shopping online or in-store, consumers will be able to link and manage multiple funding sources — including debit, credit, instalments and PayPal Credit — via a single credential.
This move represents a strategic response to the changing behaviours of modern consumers, particularly digital natives.
According to Mastercard’s 2024 New Payments Index, 47% of Gen Z consumers favour innovative payment solutions, while 65% seek to manage all their finances in one place.
The One Credential initiative not only meets these demands but also supports broader goals around financial inclusion and digital-first experiences.
Bunita Sawhney, Chief Consumer Product Officer at Mastercard, highlighted the customer-centric nature of the collaboration: “With One Credential, we’re delivering the personalised digital experiences that build consumer confidence and trust.
Together with PayPal, we are empowering consumers with more choice and control over how they pay.”
The One Credential system goes beyond merely unifying payment types.
It allows users to set preferences based on transaction type or size — for instance, selecting debit for small purchases and instalments for higher-value transactions.
This automation enables smarter budgeting and helps consumers make more deliberate financial choices.
Chris Sweetland, Senior Vice President of Partnerships at PayPal, echoed the focus on user experience: “We are excited for the opportunity to innovate together with Mastercard.
We both want to reduce friction for consumers and bring them more power over how they pay.”
By embedding Mastercard’s network-level capabilities directly into PayPal’s platform — and by extension into offerings like the PayPal Debit Mastercard and Business Debit Mastercard — the partnership extends the reach of One Credential globally.
It also represents the next phase in an already mature alliance between two of the world’s most influential payments firms.
Crucially, this initiative also aligns with broader financial wellbeing goals.
As users’ financial needs evolve, the system supports transitions from debit to structured credit, helping build responsible credit habits and long-term creditworthiness.
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