| Contacts |
| Georgette Tan MasterCard (65) 6390-5971 |
MasterCard Extends Processing Footprint in India and Beyond
Strategic Investment in ElectraCard Services (ECS) to Further Processing Strategy and Create More Value for Customers in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa
Founded in 2006, ECS provides third party processing services and software for credit, debit and prepaid cards and EFT switching solutions to banks across 25 countries. ECS’ electrasuite offers insight and capabilities to process a variety of payment transactions in real time. In India, ECS is the largest third party processor for cards, and the market leader in Internet payment gateway solutions.
Ramesh Mengawade, CEO, ElectraCard Services, said, "We are very pleased to have MasterCard join us as a strategic partner. Over the past five years, ECS has established a large customer base for our flexible and scalable electra platform, which we expect will be further adopted in the market as a result of this alliance. This collaboration with MasterCard will not only accelerate our growth, but will also yield superior processing services to our customers."
"Processing is a fundamental component of our corporate strategy to bring the greatest value to our customers," said Michael Manchisi, group executive, Global Processing Business, MasterCard Worldwide. "Our investment in ECS enhances our processing capabilities and other product offerings to help us develop a stronger presence – especially in emerging markets – to better support our customers with solutions that meet their specific local needs while leveraging the global power of the MasterCard Worldwide Network, the most comprehensive, dynamic and efficient in the industry."
The ECS' architecture complements the way the MasterCard Worldwide Network is designed. Unique to the payments industry, the MasterCard Worldwide Network blends two traditional processing architectures – offering fast, reliable and secure transactions.
As part of its broader processing strategy, MasterCard remains committed to raising the bar on innovation and providing solutions for the deployment of turn-key payment platforms. The company’s fully-integrated global payment platform enables its customer financial institutions to offer new, differentiated products to their cardholders, build new relationships, enhance customer loyalty, reach new segments, secure first-mover advantage and drive greater efficiencies.
In addition, MasterCard continues to forge new partnerships and enhance existing relationships with companies around the world to provide customers an expanded suite of payment solutions that meet their unique processing needs.
MasterCard has recently entered into an agreement to purchase DataCash, a European payment service provider, with the intention to expand its successful MiGS gateway business to allow merchants to gain new market reach and access to value-added services. DataCash offers a single interface that provides European e-commerce merchants with the ability to process secure payments across the world.
About MasterCard Worldwide
As a leading global payments company, MasterCard Worldwide prides itself on being at the heart of commerce, helping to make life easier and more efficient for everyone, everywhere. MasterCard serves as a franchisor, processor and advisor to the payments industry, and makes commerce happen by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, governments, businesses, merchants, and cardholders worldwide. In 2009, $2.5 trillion in gross dollar volume was generated on its products by consumers around the world. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network – the fastest payment processing network in the world – MasterCard processes over 22 billion transactions each year, has the capacity to handle 140 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 140 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability. MasterCard advances global commerce through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro®, and Cirrus®; its suite of core products such as credit, debit, and prepaid; and its innovative platforms and functionalities, such as MasterCard PayPassTM and MasterCard inControlTM. MasterCard serves consumers, governments, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information, please visit us at www.mastercard.com. Follow us on Twitter: @mastercardnews.