Ajay Banga, MasterCard CEO, was examining the approaches to enhance the financial inclusion among nations all around the world comprised of substantial underserved individuals, who do not have any access to bank or any financial services.
The objective needed a joint venture from the governments and banks to issue MasterCard branded debit cards to a large number of people. This initiative would ultimately help millions of individuals in a number of ways, such as enhanced financial know-how, credit records formation, increased saving rate, easy access to loans and other financial product, and would provide the economic opportunities to these recently banked customers. MasterCard possibly could also generate a significant revenue by increasing its number of customers.
Although, this initiative poses several questions for the MasterCard to consider. Was the management efforts and time well spent given the low returns expected by adding the number of people, among whom are mostly extreme poor? What are the major risks present for the MasterCard, including nations who do not accept the government collaboration with and giving personal information to a huge U.S. firm?