MasterCard re-launches debit card portfolio
By James Ratcliff
15 December 2011
MasterCard is re-launching its debit card
portfolio in the UK, offering banks “premier debit” products with
the capacity to run sophisticated rewards and loyalty
programmes.
As well as standard MasterCard Debit and
Maestro cards, MasterCard will also be offering World and
World Elite Debit cards, which the network sees as a key
differentiator in what it sees as an otherwise “one-size fits all”
marketplace.
MasterCard is launching the new suite of
cards in the UK, a market in which the network currently has a very
limited debit presence since 2009, when RBS and HSBC migrated their
portfolios to Visa Debit.
A senior source at MasterCard told Cards
International that the re-launch had already attracted the
attention of some of the UK’s major banking groups, and they expect
significant uptake on the product suite in 2012.
Loyalty programmes are notoriously
difficult to run on the debit platform due to the low interchange
revenue, but MasterCard believes that enabling banks to build a
rewards platform around their debit portfolio will enable issuers
to differentiate their current account offerings significantly.
The network has mandated that all cards be
contactless enabled and offer zero liability to the cardholder.