New Delhi: Mastercard has been an active contributor to the Indian economy for over 36 years and has played a key role in providing technology, infrastructure, and expertise to drive safe and secure electronic payments in India. It also remains committed to the Digital India agenda and the result is increased consumer choice, convenience and security at lower costs to merchants.
Committed to a model based on local investment, Mastercard will have invested approximately INR 6,500 crore (US$ 1 billion) between 2014 and 2019 to promote digital transactions in India.
Started in 2014, the local investment includes two major acquisitions, new offices in Bengaluru, Gurugram, a Mastercard Innovation Lab and operations hub in Pune. Most recently, it also opened a technology center in Vadodara, housing engineers and data scientists focused on supporting the development of tools and software for mobile technology and cybersecurity. Since 2013, Mastercard has grown its India workforce from 29 to almost 2,000, which is 14 percent of the global Mastercard workforce, and the largest outside the United States.
Beyond creating long-term job growth, this local investment model enables Mastercard to be the most cost-effective network which has helped advance India’s drive to convert cash to digital transactions.
- For debit card ATM withdrawals (70 percent of all debit transactions in India), Mastercard is 75 percent cheaper than the competition
- For debit card transactions below INR 200, a vitally important price point because of the prevalence of transit and small grocery purchases, Mastercard is at a much lower cost than the competition
Porush Singh, country corporate officer, India and division president, South Asia, Mastercard, said, “We strongly support the Government’s push towards establishing India as a less-cash society and have continuously invested in this vision.”
Porush added, “80-85 percent of the fees in debit card transactions go to financial institutions and other processors located in India for their services and will stay entirely within the Indian economy. Only 15-20 percent will come to Mastercard as compensation for our network services. It is just between 12 and 15 paise in an INR 100 transaction. We stand absolutely committed to India’s future. We firmly believe that the success of the Indian economy is the success of Mastercard.”
