MasterCard Reports First-Quarter Total Purchases up 14 pct

Performance highlights for the first three months of 2004, in addition to purchase volume, include: - Cardholders across the globe used MasterCard-branded cards (excluding Maestro and Cirrus) for over 3.7 billion transactions, generating gross dollar volume (GDV) of $331.9 billion, an increase of 8.4% over the same period in 2003. GDV includes both purchase and cash volume; - MasterCards almost 25,000 customer financial institutions around the world had issued more than 627.5 million MasterCard-branded cards, a 6.6% increase over first quarter 2003. MasterCards strong growth in the first three months of 2004 was fueled by growth in both credit and debit programs. GDV for worldwide credit and charge programs grew 8.9% to $270.1 billion, and GDV for offline debit programs rose 6.7% to $61.7 billion over the same period in 2003. Gross transactions for credit and offline debit programs increased by 10% in 2004 compared to the first quarter in 2003. Currently, cardholders can use their MasterCard cards at more than 22 million locations around the world. Acceptance locations include merchant locations, ATMs and other locations where cash may be obtained.