In 2006, we helped financial institutions and merchants differentiate their brands by offering new, advanced payment solutions that drive revenue, increase customer satisfaction and enhance cardholder loyalty. That's why many of the world's largest financial institutions continued to work, or formed new relationships, with MasterCard over the past year, including ABN Amro, Bank of America, Barclays, Capital One, Citi, GE Money, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and WaMu. It's also why so many leading merchants chose to partner with us, such as Virgin Money in Australia and South Africa; Best Buy, Barnes & Noble and Travelocity in the United States; Sam's Club in Canada, Puerto Rico and the United States; Tesco in the United Kingdom; Tata Group in India; and a number of air carriers, including Air China, Malaysia Airlines and Gol Airlines in Brazil.

Building on our World MasterCard platform, in 2006, we introduced the new World Elite MasterCard, demonstrating clear benefits to constituents across the board. More than any other card, World Elite enables banks and merchants to forge relationships with today's most sought-after demographic groups: executives and elite affluent consumers. The card succeeds by offering an unbeatable mix of benefits and rich rewards, including travel services provided exclusively through the leading luxury travel network, Virtuoso. MasterCard also continued to expand its affluent strategy with new programs in India, Latin America, Singapore, South Africa and South East Asia.