" ITREALMS: 2011: MasterCard presence records strong finish in APMEA

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

2011: MasterCard presence records strong finish in APMEA

The electronic payment giant, MasterCard Incorporated, finished strongly in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA) region in the last quarter of 2011 as at December 31.

President, Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA) at MasterCard Worldwide, Ms Vicky Bindra, made this disclosure saying that that for the quarter ending 31 December 2011, the region drove strong growth in gross dollar volume to the tune of 21.8 per cent, while purchase volume stood at 23.5 per cent, with purchase transactions recording 18.2 per cent, just as the cash transactions was 18.4 per cent and cards issued were12.3 per cent.

This, she said, that when compared with the same period in 2010, shows growth in gross dollar volume and purchase volume when calculated on a local currency basis.

According to her, as at December 31, 2011, an estimated 330 million MasterCard cards, excluding Maestro and Cirrus, had been issued by MasterCard customers in APMEA.

Cardholders, Bindra said in the region there were most deal worth 1.6 billion of purchased transactions in the fourth quarter of 2011 and cardholders could use their MasterCard cards at 33.3 million acceptance locations worldwide as of the end of the quarter.

Equally, for the year ended December 31, 2011, the APMEA region saw growth in gross dollar volume which is 22.9 per cent, purchase volume tagged 24.9 per cent, purchase transactions recorded 18.3 per cent and cash transactions 19.7 per cent versus 2010.

For the quarter ending December 31, 2011, the Maestro brand mark appeared on 237 million cards in APMEA. Even as consumers could now make debit point of sale purchases with their Maestro cards at 2.5 million merchant locations in APMEA.

“We had a strong fourth quarter and a successful 2011 driving momentum across all our markets in APMEA,” Bindra said, stressing that this was driven by new deals with industry leaders to develop innovative payment solutions for the benefit of consumers including the roll out of the contactless Absa OneTouch card in South Africa, the OneSmartPayPass card with Air New Zealand, and an agreement with Etisalat and Research in Motion in the United Arab Emirates.

As MasterCard moves into 2012, she said, the payment company has tremendous opportunities in the APMEA region and are well positioned for the future.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

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