MasterCard sees business in RI growing at 'fantastic rate'

MasterCard sees business in RI growing at 'fantastic rate'

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

International payment card company MasterCard International is
optimistic that its business volume here will continue to grow at
a "fantastic rate" despite the country's current economic
difficulties, according to company senior vice president and
general manager for Southeast Asia, Ajay Bhalla.

He told The Jakarta Post this week that last year the
company's payment card business here grew by 42 percent, with the
gross dollar volume reaching US$531 million.

He expected a similar growth rate for this year.

Bhalla said that the payment card industry in Indonesia had
huge room for growth because there were still only a few people
using payment cards for their daily transactions.

For instance, based on data from the Indonesian Credit Card
Association (AKKI), in 2000 credit card holders only made up 0.5
percent of the population.

With the low number of payment card holders, Indonesia is an
open market for the company, whose line products include credit
cards, the Maestro debit card, and the Cirrus ATM card.

Bhalla said that the biggest challenge for the company in
Indonesia was educating consumers to shift from cash to card
payments.

"I think (the) biggest challenge in Indonesia for us, more
than new products, is to propagate the convenience of payment
cards ... the consumers need to be educated," he explained.

He said that MasterCard's long-term goal in Indonesia was to
persuade as many banking customers as possible to have MasterCard
payment cards.

There are around 48 million banking customers in the country.

Bhalla said that last year, the number of MasterCard credit
card holders reached 1.5 million, while the figure for the
Maestro debit card was 9.15 million.

In 1999, the number of Maestro debit card holders was 7.9
million, up from 4.5 million in 1998.

Regarding the strategies for expanding the payment card
business in Indonesia, Bhalla said they were basically the same
as MasterCard's global strategies.

"Basically, we will focus on strengthening the services and
products as well as trying to differentiate ourselves by issuing
customized products," he said.

To expand its business, MasterCard has tied up with local
private and state-owned banks.

MasterCard International recorded more than 11.6 billion
transactions worldwide last year with a gross dollar volume of
$986 billion, an increase of 17.6 percent over 2000.

Its 15,000 member financial institutions worldwide issued 520
million MasterCard branded cards, which is an 18.8 increase over
2000, the highest year-to-year growth rate in five years.

In Asia, MasterCard reported a gross dollar volume of $200
billion, up 18.2 percent from the previous year.