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
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