With the Durbin Amendment’s requirement for issuers to support at least two debit networks and merchants gaining control over routing relationships, MasterCard is taking these growth opportunities and running with them. Calls to be specific about their strategies have been bypassed as the organization works through their pipeline.
“Ours is one of potential upside, not the need to defend a large incumbent position. As a result, we will be looking at strategic surgical opportunities with issuers, acquirers and merchants to incent new PIN enablement on cards, as well as routing to our network.”
Visa’s announcement to drive EMV acceptance in the U.S. may be an exception as these types of large market movements generally sweep across the major stakeholders. However, in this uber-competitive market, it’s not business as usual, so we may see a more nuanced reply in the near future.