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MasterCard to tap unbanked rural sector in India

Plastic Money leaders in Asia and Pacific, MasterCard, on Wednesday said it plans to tap the unbanked rural sector in a big way by launching electronic cards for farmers besides giving a big push to debit cards as the company saw India along with China as a 'significant' market in the coming years for card business.

MasterCard Asia-Pacific region president Andre Sekulic said MasterCard, which has grown at a record 38 per cent in 2000 in the region, proposed to focus in the unbanked sector in India after the successful launch of electronics cards in Philippines and Malaysia this year.

As 8.5 per cent of the transactions were still conducted by cash in the unbanked sector, electronic cards provided the answer for secured payment system in the region, and Indonesia, Thailand and India were next in the agenda, Sekulic told PTI after the inauguration of the Master Card three-day annual conference in Gold Coast, Australia.

Elaborating on the India plan, Master Cards' general manager for South and Southeast Asia, Sonny Sannon said electronic cards for kisans would be launched soon in collaboration with Public Sector Banks, which has the network in rural India.

"Soon we are going to tap the rural market in a big way and these cards will be there within the next 12 months," Sannon said. He added the electronic cards would be like a purse that would contain for example Rs 5,000 or so at one time, which could be by way of loan or withdrawals from bank accounts.

The card would be a sort of purse for farmers.

Both Sekulic and Sannon said MasterCard's PIN-based debit card is another area, which had potential to grow manifold in India as all the 230 million bank account holders were potential customers. Unlike credit cards, debit cards entail online transfer of money from card holder's bank account to the merchant for purchases.

India presently has only one million MasterCards debit cards. There are additional 2.5 million MasterCards credit card holders.

With the launch of electronic cards for rural India this year, the plastic money business was expected to grow by leaps and bounds. India is likely to account for a large chunk of the four billion cards forecast for the Asia-Pacific region in the next three or four years.

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