Bangkok--9 Feb--124 Communication
MasterCard Incorporated today announced strong fourth quarter and full year results for the Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA) region. For the quarter ending 31 December 2009, the region witnessed double-digit growth in gross dollar volume (20.3%), purchase volume (18.6%), purchase transactions (19.4%), cash transactions (31.9%) and cards issued (11.2%), versus the same period in 2008.
As of 31 December 2009, 268 million MasterCard cards (excluding Maestro? and Cirrus) had been issued by MasterCard customer financial institutions in APMEA. Cardholders in the region made 1,130 million purchase transactions in the fourth quarter of 2009 and cardholders could use their MasterCard cards at 29.9 million acceptance locations worldwide.
“Despite difficult global economic conditions in the first half of the year, MasterCard delivered strong results in the region,” said Vicky Bindra, president, Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa, MasterCard Worldwide. “As the economic climate continues to improve, MasterCard will continue to focus on innovation, share our world-class market insights, work closely with our customers and assist them with building their market share, and work to achieve sustainable growth.
“We believe there are many attractive opportunities to pursue in the APMEA region and MasterCard has made good progress in replacing cash and checks and establishing our brand presence. Despite some market challenges, I continue to feel cautiously optimistic about our business prospects.”
Maestro? Cards
For the quarter ending 31 December 2009, the Maestro? brand mark appeared on 207 million cards in APMEA. Consumers can now make debit point of sale purchases with their Maestro cards at 1 million merchant locations in APMEA.
Full Year 2009 Results
For the year ending 31 December 2009, the APMEA region saw growth in gross dollar volume (17.9%), purchase volume (16.6%), purchase transactions (19.1%) and cash transactions (29.5%) versus 2008.
In addition to the performance highlights, MasterCard in the APMEA region also reported a number of significant achievements for the quarter ending 31 December 2009. (See attached for business highlights)
Contacts:
Eileen Wee,
[email protected], 0 2677 7450
Elizabeth Wongwasin,
[email protected], 0 2662 2266
Forward-Looking Statements