MasterCard Europe today announced its third quarter 2009 operating results for the Europe region. European consumers continued to use their MasterCard-branded cards during the quarter, with purchase transactions up 5.2% compared to the same period in 2008 - continuing the increased trend toward electronic payments in the region.
"This is positive news for plastic," said Javier Perez, President MasterCard Europe. "In today's economic environment, consumers are closely managing their spending. The fact that they are increasingly selecting MasterCard and Maestro as their payment option of choice - over cash - proves that today's payment choice is focused on value.
"With electronic payments, consumers are able to decide how much reward, cash-back, added services, enhanced security and money-management they want. As such, we continue to work with our customer financial institutions to design and deliver card programmes that address the growing cardholder demand for value," added Perez.
"This combination of the right value and the recognition that all consumers are not the same has led us to develop several new card programmes under a segmented approach. For example, we expanded the number of 'social' card programmes, widened the scope of our 'premium' programmes and introduced money management functionality onto our Maestro debit platform."
European Results
For the third quarter 2009, the European region reported MasterCard gross dollar volume for Europe increased 0.2%; purchase volume grew 1.6%; purchase transactions increased
5.2%, and cash transactions decreased 2.7%, compared to the third quarter 2008.
From 1 July until 30 September, European cardholders made more than 1.7 billion purchase transactions with their MasterCard-branded cards, including those made online.
As of 30 September 2009, 197 million MasterCard cards (excluding Maestro and Cirrus) had been issued by MasterCard customer financial institutions across Europe, an increase of 1.9 % compared to the same quarter in 2008. European cardholders could use their MasterCard cards at 8.7 million acceptance locations in the region and at 29.4 million acceptance locations worldwide.
In addition, the Maestro® brand mark appeared on 305 million cards. Consumers can now make point of sale purchases with their Maestro cards at 7.4 million merchant
locations throughout Europe and at 12.3 million merchant locations worldwide.
MasterCard Europe reported a number of critical pan-European business achievements for the quarter including:
Premium
· In the UK, MasterCard has strengthened its activity in the premium credit card market by announcing an extended partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), leveraging the World MasterCard and World Signia MasterCard platforms, which took effect in October 2009.
· Citi also joined forces with MasterCard in the premium arena with two further European announcements. The first, in the UK, announced the launch of the Egg Money World MasterCard card. In Russia, MasterCard and Citi joined forces with Lufthansa's successful Miles & More loyalty programme to introduce the first co-brand card to leverage the MasterCard World Signia premium platform. The Citi Miles & More Ultima card brings unique services and rewards to Russian high-spending, frequent flyers.
· Also in the UK, Tesco Bank became the first European retail banking organisation to leverage the MasterCard World platform with the introduction of the Tesco World Finest Master Card. MasterCard has supported the Tesco World Finest MasterCard launch in key areas such as value proposition development, customer segmentation and strategy development in the mass affluent space.
Innovation
· The Maestro product proposition was enhanced further with the first European launch of Maestro with a free-of-charge Finance Manager application. The launch, in Poland, was also the first introduction of Maestro into the debit portfolio of Millennium Bank.
· The 'social' card - first introduced in Euro pe earlier this year - celebrated two further regional launches. In Russia, following a successful earlier launch of the UralSib Social Card in 2006, the Russian government announced their intent to widen the planned roll-out to a wider geography than first intended, to reach citizens across the country. The programme has been applauded for its ability to combine on a single card several capabilities, enabling welfare beneficiaries to receive a variety of social benefits, including free transportation, discounted medicines and social and pension payments. In Spain, the Madrid Government introduced the 'Tarjeta Escolar' prepaid card programme. The prepaid cards, issued by saving bank La Caixa, are designed to deliver 31 million Euros of governmental funding for school equipment and books for parents in and around Madrid.
· MasterCard's PayPass contactless payments extended its European reach, debuting in Hungary with card issuance from OTP Bank. Accepting merchants in Budapest include fast-food restaurants such as Burger King and McDonalds, newsagents and cinemas. Additionally, Slovakia celebrated its first year as a PayPass country with the introduction of the PayPass Birdie Watch from Volksbank.
· The importance of 'rewards' and loyalty programs came to a fore in several markets across the region. In the Czech Republic, MasterCard in cooperation with GE Money and European retailer Tesco introduced a new card loyalty program - the first such of its kind in the country. In Germany, one of the country's best known multi-merchant loyalty programs - DeutschlandCard - was reengineered as a payment card/loyalty in a partnership with Deutsche Bank and MasterCard.
Prepaid
· MasterCard's prepaid business continues to gain ground in the Italian payments market. Recent milestones include the Social Card with Poste Italiane, and MasterCard's pioneering work in the 'lean card' segment, with prepaid cards that work as an alternative to a current account. In September, MasterCard supported the launch of the first co-branded prepaid card with PayPal - the global online payments provider. The card is the first to feature the unique consumer benefit of a quick and easy reloading facility through the cardholders PayPal account, offering reloading of up to 10,000 Euros a year free of charge.
· The diversity of prepaid was further demonstrated in the country with the introduction in September of the Carta Ateneum prepaid MasterCard card. Developed for Salerno University in partnership with Iccrea Banca, the prepaid card is designed to help students manage their spending money more wisely with the additional support of special discounts and services.
SEPA
· Maestro acceptance reached an important milestone in Belgium this summer with the debut of e-commerce acceptance in the country through the support of KBC, CBC and Centea banks. Maestro acceptance at petrol forecourts was also introduced in Belgium and Luxembourg, marking a significant SEPA opportunity win through a partnership with leading petrol forecourt service provider Tokheim. The partnership enables international acquirers to gain a competitive edge approach to SEPA-compliant debit card acceptance in a service sector dedicated to Europe's traveling public.