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MasterCard shares strategy
( 2001-06-11 07:29 ) (9 )

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to strengthen its leading role in the development of the payments industry, delegates at an international conference were told last week.

Andre Sekulic, Asia-Pacific Region president of MasterCard International, made the comment at the 2001 annual meeting held last week on Australia's Gold Coast.

Some 1,000 senior banking executives from member financial institutions throughout the region attended the meeting, including about 100 representatives from China.

The meeting, aimed at sharing with members MasterCard's strategic plans, reported strong growth across all markets last year.

By the end of 2000, MasterCard's 20,000 member institutions had issued more than 437 million MasterCard-branded cards around the world, a 15.4 per cent jump on the previous year. Cardholders using MasterCard-branded products generated US$857 billion worldwide in gross dollar volume (GDV) last year, a 21.5 per cent increase over 1999.

The Asia-Pacific Region witnessed the fastest growth. Card issuance increased 27 per cent to 195 million with combined GDV increasing 54 per cent last year.

According to company figures, consumers and businesses using MasterCard payment cards made 1 billion transactions in the Asia-Pacific Region last year. Sekulic said it indicated 12,000 transactions were made every hour of every day for the entire year in the region.

The number of users of Maestro, a MasterCard debit service, grew strongly in the region. Since the card was launched in 1993, a total of 100 million such cards have been issued in the region.

China has been active in developing debit products. The Agricultural Bank of China, for instance, now issues 1 million Maestro cards a month. About 20 million debit cards are expected to be issued by the bank annually over the next few years. A total of 100 million such cards issued by the Agricultural Bank of China will be in the wallets and purses of Chinese consumers by 2003, according to a plan of the bank.

Over the past few years, MasterCard International has invested both time and money in predicting the development of the payment industry.

The company's research shows a new set of factors will converge to drive economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region over the next five years.

While exports continue to be important in the region, domestic consumption growth will play an increasingly important role in the region.

"Within this context, the opportunities for the card payments industry are nothing short of revolutionary in the region," Sekulic said.

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