The agreement calls for TJX to provide up to $24 million to support an Alternative Recovery Program to settle claims made by issuers to recover costs and losses they claimed to have incurred in connection with the breach. Issuers must have previously filed claims and agree to the Alternative Recovery Program's terms to be eligible for compensation funded by the agreement.

“This agreement reflects MasterCard’s continuing commitment to working with merchants and our customers to reach appropriate and fair resolutions of data breach events,” said Joshua Peirez, chief payment system integrity officer for MasterCard Worldwide. “We believe that by working closely and cooperatively with issuers and merchants we can reduce the overall impact and costs of security breaches, while protecting consumers and accelerating fair and equitable resolutions of claims.”

Under the terms of the agreement, MasterCard card issuers that filed claims for operational expenses related to accounts designated by MasterCard in alerts to issuers or for reimbursement of fraud losses on such accounts used at TJX stores during time periods identified by MasterCard will be eligible to receive financial restitution in Q2 2008, provided they choose to participate in the optional program.

The agreement is contingent upon the acceptance of issuing financial institutions representing at least 90 percent of the claimed-on MasterCard accounts.

Issuers that choose to participate in the Alternative Recovery Program must agree not to seek or participate in any other recoveries that may be available to issuers and must also release MasterCard, TJX and TJX’s acquirers from all legal and financial liability associated with the TJX data breach.

All eligible issuers will soon receive notification from MasterCard with further details about the Alternative Recovery Program and the steps necessary to participate. To facilitate and expedite payment, eligible issuers will have 30 days from the date of the Settlement Agreement (April 2, 2008) to decide whether to opt-in to the program before the offer expires.