MasterCard, in a bold land grab, is now a program manager in international markets.
“The acquisition of Travelex’s CPM operations underscores MasterCard’s commitment to the global prepaid business, which remains a key strategic focus for us,” said Ajay Banga, MasterCard president and chief executive officer. “This acquisition enables MasterCard to play a greater role in the prepaid value chain, allowing us to shape the future of prepaid, especially in high-growth markets and in the attractive cross-border payments space where we can displace cash and traveler’s cheques.”
Only time will tell how US processors and program managers, many of whom have also targeted international markets for growth, feel about MasterCard’s prepaid vertical integration strategy. MasterCard is clearly aligning its own prepaid value chain to compete aggressively in international markets to drive revenue from the network, processing, and now program management. The good news in all of this is that the press release also states that “
MasterCard has no plans to issue cards directly as a result of this transaction.” So at least banks can rest easy!
Read related press release: http://investorrelations.mastercardintl.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=148835&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=1506084
Read realted viewpoint by Tim Sloane, Director, Prepaid Advisory Service, Mercator Advisory Group: MasterCard Strategy Challenges Prepaid Partners