MasterCard International Reports Double-Digit Growth for Most Markets in Asia/Pacific for 2004

In 2004, cardholders in Asia/Pacific used 131.8 million MasterCard-branded cards for nearly 1.9 billion transactions, generating gross dollar volume (GDV) of $225.95 billion. For the fourth quarter, Asia/Pacific GDV increased by 5.9 percent, as total purchase on MasterCard credit and offline debit cards increased 11.4 percent for the three months ended December 31, 2004. Asia/Pacific registered solid performance in most markets except Korea, where the payments industry continues to be plagued with challenges such as credit card delinquencies and write-offs. Most markets in the region registered double or triple digit growth. Even mature markets, such as, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan experienced healthy growth in both number of cards, acceptance locations and GDV. Performance highlights for 2004 include: • Cardholders used MasterCard-branded cards (excluding Maestro® and Cirrus®) for almost 1.9 billion transactions in Asia/Pacific and 16.7 billion transactions worldwide, generating GDV of $1.5 trillion, an increase of 10.6 percent over 2003. • Acceptance locations in Asia/Pacific increased by 13.6 percent to 8.8 million. • At a global level, MasterCard’s almost 25,000 customer financial institutions around the world had issued 679.5 million MasterCard-branded cards by year end, an 8.6 percent increase over 2003. • The value of purchases on MasterCard-branded cards showed strong growth worldwide, rising 12.4 percent to over $1 trillion. This was echoed in Asia/Pacific, with purchase volume increasing 11.9 percent to $150.3 million. MasterCard’s strong performance in 2004 was fueled by growth in both credit and offline debit programs. GDV for worldwide credit and charge programs grew 8.8 percent to nearly $1.2 trillion, while GDV for offline debit programs rose 18.7 percent to $277.2 billion. Strong Results Positive GDV growth was reported in all of MasterCard’s regions in 2004. This included 9.3 percent growth in the United States, 12.8 percent growth in Canada, 14.2 percent growth in Europe, 33.3 percent growth in Latin America and 25.5 percent growth in South Asia/Middle East/Africa. Driving Innovative and Convenient Payment Solutions A wide range of significant business milestones in 2004 fueled MasterCard’s growth and brand reach around the world: • MasterCard reached a key milestone on the road to global smart card adoption. MasterCards customer financial institutions have issued 233 million MasterCard®, Maestro® and Cirrus® smart cards around the world. • MasterCard introduced the first Chip Combo Card in Taiwan in early 2004. The all-in-one card combines MasterCard credit, debit, and Mondex® stored value functions, as well as access to the Cirrus® ATM network. At the end of year, the number of cards issued in Taiwan has exceeded one million with 11 issuers participating in the program. • Enhancements made in 2004 to the MasterCard Multinational Corporate Program now enable MasterCard issuers to manage and consolidate corporate card programs — including the MasterCard Corporate Card®, MasterCard Purchasing Card® and MasterCard Corporate MultiCard® — for multinational organizations that require commercial card programs in more than one country. • Citigroup Global Transaction Services and MasterCard signed a multi-year agreement to launch commercial cards in Asia/Pacific. Under the agreement, Citigroup will provide MasterCard-brand card payment solutions to multinational corporate clients in the region through their CitibankÂ