Banga's exit is being seen as a blow to Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, who said in a speech this week that the bank would look abroad for growth as the US economy slows. At MasterCard, he will be responsible for key business operations, including customer relationships globally, products, services, marketing, technology and operations.
The cost of acquiring new cardholders is quite low for domestic card issuers by international standards, but net credit losses are comparatively high, a study commissioned by the Indian Cards Council (ICC) revealed.
Driven by high trading volumes for equities and good presence of global banking and financial services firms, Mumbai has grabbed a place in the world's top ten financial flow hubs list, beating Hong Kong and Beijing in China.
Reserve Bank has directed banks to provide their eligible customers with an option to choose from multiple card networks at the time of issuing credit or debit cards, a move which will benefit card users. The central bank also asked issuers of credit cards not to enter into any arrangement or agreement with card networks that restrain customers from availing the services of other networks.
To provide more choices to customers, the Reserve Bank of India has suggested mandating bank and non-bank card issuers to issue debt, credit and prepaid cards on more than one network. Customers can choose any one either at the time of issue of the card or anytime later, according to draft norms released by the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday. The RBI said card issuers would also be barred from signing agreements that limit their ability to tie-up with other card-networks, according to the draft.
Is Julian Assange a dangerous "cyber terrorist" or is he a champion of the free press?
'Devika is a people's person, who simply loves what she does. This reflects in her work; the insights she brings to the table and the way she interacts with people and clients. She has the demeanour of a good captain. Her success is well-deserved.'
Business confidence in India continued to improve and touched a two-year high in January, according to the latest National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) - MasterCard Worldwide Index of Business Confidence.
MasterCard's 'Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities' has come up with a list of the top 20 global destinations that will see a huge stream of visitors in 2012.
At 81.2, in an index which is calculated with zero as the most pessimistic 100 as the most optimistic, India was the leader of the pack in Asia, said MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence.
The US Chamber of Commerce has written the President complaining of India's discrimination against a wide range of US exports.
USIBC wants Obama to raise America Inc's concerns with Manmohan Singh.
The business confidence index stood at 145.2 points in July-September quarter of 2011 as compared to 145.3 points reported over April-June period of this year, pointing to a continuation of cautious outlook on the economy in the short term, the latest NCAER-MasterCard Worldwide Index of Business Confidence said.
This is the lowest level of BCI in the last six quarters, the latest NCAER-MasterCard Worldwide Index of Business Confidence said.
The business confidence index for Indian companies has bounced back to 156.8 points in the April-June quarter of 2010 after falling to a low of 81.6 during the same period last year.
Indian consumers are the most optimistic lot in the Asia Pacific region, says a study that gauged their mood for the second half of 2009.
According to the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence survey, a widespread optimism was visible in consumers across Asia Pacific, West Asia and Africa markets for the next six months.
The RBI on April 6 directed all payments service providers to make sure "that the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them are stored in a system only in India."
London has been named the world's leading center of commerce in a survey by Mastercard. The survey found that London outpaced New York in four of the six dimensions used by the Worldwide Center of Commerce Index: economic stability, ease of doing business, financial flow and business center. While the other three are self-explanatory, business center "depends on the clustering effect of business formation, supported by efficiency in logistics and transportation linkages."
In addition to Pichai and Nadella, IBM's Arvind Krishna, Micron's Sanjay Mehrotra, Ajay Banga from Mastercard and Ann Mukherjee from Pernod are among the six Indian-Americans among over 200 corporate honchos who will advise the President and offer recommendations on how to revive the American economy.
Apple Pay will be available in 250,000 locations across the UK.
'To all the MBAs that burn the candle at both ends, travel half-a-million miles every year, and spend little or no quality time with their families, the rise to riches of Mr Bikhchandani and Mr Banga, should be true inspiration,' notes Sandeep Goyal.
The addition of a mobile payments service to Apple Inc's next iPhone could help to boost sales of the larger-screen phones and claw back market share lost to mobiles running on Google Inc's Android platform.
'Last time, there was an incumbent and a challenger. This year, the roles have been reversed.' 'The challenger is the incumbent and the ones ruling then are now the challengers.' 'So, the realities have changed and so have the electorate's expectations.'
Multi-currency pre-paid cards are a good option while travelling abroad.
Also, after years of rumours and speculation, Apple unveiled its first wearable device, Apple Watch.
The first new product to be developed and introduced under Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook's reign is a wearable device
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