MasterCard makes strategic investment in India based ElectraCard Services

Strategic Investment to extend processing footprint, support processing strategy and create more value for customers in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

Mumbai, 30 September 2010: MasterCard Worldwide and ElectraCard Services today announced that MasterCard has taken a 12.5% stake in Pune headquartered ElectraCard Services (ECS), a leading provider for credit and payments management. The investment in ECS bolsters MasterCard’s overarching global processing strategy by further extending MasterCard’s product offerings and enhancing services across the full spectrum of the processing value chain not only in Inida but also in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

Founded in 2006, ECS provides third party processing services and software for credit, debit and prepaid cards and EFT switching solutions to banks across 25 countries. ECS’ electra suiteprovides depth and capabilities to process in real time a variety of payment transactions. In India, ECS is the largest third party processor for cards and the market leader in Internet payment gateway solutions.

As part of its broader processing strategy, MasterCard remains committed to raising the bar on innovation and providing solutions for the deployment of turnkey payment platforms. The company’s fully integrated global payment platform enables its customer financial institutions to offer new, differentiated products to their cardholders; build new relationships; enhance customer loyalty; reach new segments; secure first-mover advantage and drive greater efficiencies The investment in ECS is designed to further the strategic objectives of both organizations.

Ramesh Mengawade, CEO, ElectraCard Services, said, “We are very pleased to have MasterCard join us as a strategic partner. Over the past five years, ECS has established a large customer base for our flexible and scalable electra platform, which we expect will be further adopted in the market as a result of this alliance. This partnership with MasterCard will not only accelerate our growth but will also yield superior processing services to our customers.”

“MasterCard is committed to bringing the greatest value to our customers, who are increasingly looking to enhance the depth of their product offering and differentiate themselves in the marketplace. We are impressed with ECS’ capabilities and look forward to further enabling our mutual customers with customized and differentiated options. This is certainly one of the key milestones in the rollout of MasterCard’s global processing strategy,” said T.V. Seshadri, General Manager, South Asia, MasterCard Worldwide.