MasterCard Defining Bank Issuers By Reporting Capabilities

MasterCard is striving to ensure greater consistency of management information from its issuing banks worldwide by grading each of them on the quality of their data, making it easier for corporate customers to specify the level of detail they require, and encouraging bank issues to raise the level of reporting services.

MasterCard includes banks that provide information including hotel folio data, travel agency data and feeds from global distribution systems in its top "gold-level" tier. Banks that provide such details as employee number are classified as "silver," while those that provide only basic transaction information are called "standard."

Marcie Verdin, vice president of the large-market segment for corporate payment solutions at MasterCard, said most of the brand's issuing banks in the United States are at gold or silver level, while those elsewhere in the world are mainly silver or standard. "We have retooled our entire multinational program and added a layer of scrutiny by creating these standards," said Verdin. "In the RFPs we pitch for, clients can specify what level of data they need. Banks like Citibank can already compete because they have a global footprint. This is helping us to form a network of alliance banks."

MasterCard developed the standards last year but only now is starting to match its issuing banks to them. Defining the set of standards is prompting issuers to improve their data provision, Verdin said. "We have plans in place to move all our silver and standard issuers up a level. We want to achieve that by the end of the year," she said.

Verdin said the strategy would help corporate clients, which are keen to work with local banks, to find a global card solution that meets their needs.