MasterCard reports strong first quarter growth in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region

MasterCard today announced first quarter 2011 results for the Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA) region. For the quarter ending 31 March 2011, the region registered growth in gross dollar volume (GDV) (20.1%), purchase volume (21.6%), purchase transactions (16.5%), cash transactions (18.8%) and cards issued (10.9%) versus the same period in 2010.  

As of 31 March 2011, 303 million MasterCard cards (excluding Maestro and Cirrus) had been issued by MasterCard customer financial institutions across APMEA. Cardholders in the region made 1,296 million purchase transactions in the first quarter of 2011 and could use their MasterCard cards at 32.2 million acceptance locations worldwide.

At the end of the first quarter, the Maestro brand mark appeared on 218 million cards in APMEA. Consumers can now make debit point of sale purchases with their Maestro-branded cards at 1.9 million merchant locations in the APMEA region.

“Our first quarter was a strong start to 2011 with solid gains in the areas of credit, debit and commercial cards. Our results demonstrate the strength of our business and the continuing growth in the payments industry," said Vicky Bindra, President, Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa, MasterCard Worldwide. “As MasterCard continues to look for ways to replace cash, we will work closely with our bank, merchant and other payment partners to leverage new technologies and innovative payment methods that effectively meet the payment needs of consumers.”

In addition to the performance highlights, MasterCard in the APMEA region also reported a number of significant achievements for the quarter ending 31 March 2011.