MasterCard cards issued in AsPac up 17.2% in September

MasterCard International has reported strong performance results for its payment programs as of Sept. 30 with the Asia Pacific region registering a 17.2-percent growth.

"Although most economies around the world remained weak during the year, MasterCard continues to see strong growth in all aspects of our payment programs," Robert W. Selander, MasterCard’s president and chief executive officer said. "These results demonstrate the continued progress our payment solutions are making against cash and checks as consumers and merchants around the world increasingly recognize the convenient and secure options we offer."

In addition, Selander attributed MasterCard’s success to the company’s strategic focus on providing exceptional customer service and technological capabilities, unsurpassed acceptance, and customized payments solutions for its member financial institutions across the globe.

"Our growth continues to reflect that more and more often, our members and their customers are turning to MasterCard as their payment brand of choice."

The Asia Pacific region reported MasterCard gross dollar volume or GDV growth of 12.7 percent for the first nine months of 2002, to almost $165.9 billion, compared to the same period in 2001.

GDV growth for Asia/Pacific (excluding China) increased by 23.4 percent to $128.6 billion compared to the same period in 2001.

These regional results were driven by strong MasterCard GDV growth in Korea (up 28.3 percent), Australia (up 15.7 percent) and Japan (up 11.5 percent) between the periods.

Third quarter MasterCard GDV in Asia Pacific rose 8.8 percent in 2002 over the same period in 2001. The number of MasterCard-branded cards issued in the region at Sept. 30 rose 17.2 percent to 110.8 million, compared to Sept. 30, 2001.

Cardholders across the globe used MasterCard-branded cards (excluding Cirrus and Maestro online debit activity) for more than 9.84 billion purchase and cash transactions in the first nine months of 2002, generating GDV of $831.7 billion, an increase of 16.1 percent over the same period in 2001. Third quarter 2002 purchase and cash transactions reached 3.50 billion, generating GDV of $296 billion, a 16.5-percent gain over third quarter 2001.

In the same period, MasterCard’s 25,000 member financial institutions around the world had issued nearly 578.8 million MasterCard-branded cards, a 15.6-percent increase over September 2001. These cards could be used at 29.6 million acceptance locations around the world.

MasterCard’s strong growth in the first nine months of 2002 was fueled by growth in both credit and debit programs. GDV for worldwide MasterCard credit programs grew 15.1 percent to $690.6 billion, and GDV for MasterCard off-line debit programs rose 21.6 percent to $141.1 billion, in each case compared to the first nine months of 2001.

In addition to the Asia/Pacific’s strong growth performance, strong MasterCard-branded GDV growth was reported for all regions, with each reporting double-digit gains in the first nine months of 2002 compared to the same period in 2001: the US rose 17.8 percent; Europe, 13.6 percent; Asia/Pacific, 12.7 percent; Latin America, 26.3 percent; South Asia, Middle East/Africa, 23.1 percent; and Canada, 19.8 percent.

In the United States, which accounts for more than half of total GDV, MasterCard-branded cards were used in almost five billion purchase and cash transactions in the first nine months of 2002, generating $439.7 billion in GDV, a 17.8-percent GDV increase over the same period in 2001.

Both strong purchase volume growth of 16.6 percent and strong cash volume growth of 21 percent drove this high growth rate. At Sept. 30, 2002, the number of MasterCard cards issued in the United States increased 15.1 percent to almost 309 million.