MasterCard Advisors Says Opportunities Abound for Co-Brand Programs in Asia/Pacific

In recent trend analysis conducted by MasterCard Advisors, the exponential growth in the debit and pre-paid market in the region was highlighted, with the number of cards and average transaction value doubling over the past two years. Credit cards have showed steady growth since the first quarter of 2001, with the number of credit cards in the region up by 40%. However, the average transaction values on credit cards decreased by 25% in the same period. Co-branding Opportunities While the payments market has enormous potential in Asia/Pacific, MasterCard research has clearly shown that creating successful card programs will lie in effective market segmentation and a strong understanding of consumer needs. Co-brand programs, with their strong core features, compelling reward platforms, and relevance to consumer lifestyles and spending preferences, serve as the foundation of MasterCards strategy. In the near future, smaller, nimbler co-brand card programs for specific segments will come to the forefront, rather than large, mass-appeal programs. Highly successful programs for market segments including women and youth already exist and these will continue to proliferate in more specific, profitable niches. Opportunities also lie in small and medium enterprises, which represent the growth engine of the Asia/Pacific region. Co-brand programs that expand their product offering to meet the needs of small business owners to maximize new account acquisition opportunities and broaden reach, are likely to flourish. Delivering End-to-End Solutions With a highly focused payments expertise in consulting, outsourcing, research and information services, MasterCard Advisors helps clients improve the bottom-line profitability of their payments business. Services provided by MasterCard Advisors include cardholder services, customer relationship management, information technology, marketing, operations, research, rewards, and risk management. Through these practices, Advisors delivers rigorous analytics and recommends strategic and/or tactical solutions, such as identifying disruptive trends or analyzing portfolio performance, and is able to design and implement useful strategies and tactics to impact bottom line profitability. About Co-Brand Card Programs Co-branding is a partnership that brings together three parties: a global payments solutions provider such as MasterCard, an issuing financial institution and a partner. The three parties work in close collaboration to create a card program that is marketed to the partner?s customer base. Co-brand card programs offer the opportunity to reward existing customers with an expanded-utility payments vehicle that typically carries the partner?s logo/brand identity and offers distinctive cardholder incentives. Examples of successful co-brand card programs in Asia/Pacific include the MTV Card (Singapore), Virgin MasterCard credit card (Australia), Kartu Belanja Carrefour (Indonesia), Citibank Skypass MasterCard (Korea) and Core Pacific City Mall MasterCard (Taiwan).