Mastercard is the second Fortune 500 company to facilitate the blockchain payments while the first being IBM which reveiled it a week ago.
While both the companies are using Blockchain technology and targetting cross-border payments, one key difference between both of them is that:
IBM will use Lumens cryptocurrency by partnering with Stellar for cross-border payments.
Mastercard will use local money for cross-border payments and not going to use cryptocurrency.
Mastercard has an edge over IBM since their network has over 22,000 banks and financial institution while the latter only announced 13 banks in their network.
Source:
http://fortune.com/2017/10/20/mastercard-blockchain-bitcoin/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/mastercard-opens-access-to-its-blockchain-tech/