Reinforcing its commitment to Digital India, Mastercard on Thursday said it would make local investments of $1 billion between 2014 and 2019 to promote digital transactions in India. Of the $1 billion committed for local investment, 75 per cent has been invested in India since 2014, the leading technology company in the global payments industry said.
Since 2014, the local investment in India has included two major acquisitions, new offices in Bengaluru and Gurugram, a Mastercard Innovation Lab and an operations hub in Pune. Most recently, Mastercard also opened a technology centre in Vadodara, housing engineers and data scientists focused on supporting the development of tools and software for mobile technology and cyber security.
Since 2013, Mastercard has grown its India workforce from 29 to almost 2,000, which is 14 per cent of the global Mastercard workforce, and the largest outside the US.
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.”
DEBIT CARDS
From July 1, Mastercard has lowered the fees (revenue) that it collects as compensation for network services to 12-15 paise in a Rs 100 transaction on a debit card. Porush said 80-85 per cent 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 per cent will come to Mastercard as compensation for our network services. It is just between 12 and 15 paise in a Rs 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,” he said.
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 per cent of all debit transactions in India), Mastercard is 75 per cent cheaper than competition, according to Porush.
In the case of debit card transactions below Rs 200, a vitally important price point because of the prevalence of transit and small grocery purchases, Mastercard is at a much lower cost than competition