MasterCard Incorporated said that the Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) registered growth in gross dollar volume (GDV) (20.1%), purchase volume1 (21.6%), purchase transactions (16.5%), cash transactions (18.8%) and cards issued (10.9%) versus the same period in 2010.
As of 31 March 2011, 303 million MasterCard cards had been issued by MasterCard customer financial institutions across APMEA. Cardholders in the region made 1,296 million purchase transactions in the first quarter of 2011 and could use their MasterCard cards at 32.2 million acceptance locations worldwide.
At the end of the first quarter, the Maestro brand mark appeared on 218 million cards in APMEA. Consumers can now make debit point of sale purchases with their Maestro-branded cards at 1.9 million merchant locations in the APMEA region.
“Our first quarter was a strong start to 2011 with solid gains in the areas of credit, debit and commercial cards. Our results demonstrate the strength of our business and the continuing growth in the payments industry,” said Vicky Bindra, President, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard Worldwide. “As MasterCard continues to look for ways to replace cash, we will work closely with our bank, merchant and other payment partners to leverage new technologies and innovative payment methods that effectively meet the payment needs of consumers.”
MasterCard serves as a franchisor, processor and advisor to the payments industry, and makes commerce happen by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, governments, businesses, merchants, and cardholders worldwide. In 2010, $2.7 trillion in gross dollar volume was generated on its products by consumers around the world. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network – the fastest payment processing network in the world – MasterCard processes over 23 billion transactions each year and has the capacity to handle 160 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 130 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability. MasterCard advances global commerce through its family of brands, including MasterCard, Maestro, and Cirrus; its suite of core products such as credit, debit, and prepaid; and its innovative platforms and functionalities, such as MasterCard PayPass and MasterCard inControl. MasterCard serves consumers, governments, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories.