MasterCard transactions overshoot $3.7bn

The number of Romanian debit and credit cards bearing MasterCard and Maestro logos rose to over 3 million by the end of last year, with transactions performed using these cards overshooting 3.7bn dollars (2.8bn euros). The total transaction volume includes merchant transactions and ATM operations. MasterCard”s competitor on the market, VISA, reached a number of 2.8 million cards, facilitating 2.8bn dollars” worth of transactions, according to company data, implying a lower average value of transaction per card. Together, there were more than 5.8 million cards on the market in 2004, while transactions reached a value of 6.5bn dollars (around 5.4bn euros). “2004 was another year full of excellent results for us, which helped us maintain our market leader position, both in terms of the number of cards issued and transaction volumes,” said Denisa Mateescu, MasterCard Operations Manager for Romania. She says that last year clearly felt the influence of standard and premiums credits cards issued under the MasterCard brand. ZF