CAIRO: MasterCard Incorporated said its second quarter 2008 results were strong in the region, according to a press statement. For the quarter ending June 30 in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA), the company witnessed double-digit growth in gross dollar volume (20.3 percent), purchase volume (23.4 percent), purchase transactions (19.3 percent), cash transactions (22.6 percent) and cards issued (16.7 percent) versus the same period in 2007. At the end of June, over 226 million MasterCard cards had been issued across APMEA. Cardholders in the region made more than 842 million purchase transactions in the second quarter of 2008, the firm said, and could use their MasterCard cards at 27.3 million acceptance locations worldwide. "We are very pleased with our second quarter results. Despite challenging economic conditions, MasterCard achieved strong growth across our wide spectrum of products in the diverse region of APMEA, said Andre Sekulic, president of Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard Worldwide. Meanwhile, the Maestro brand mark appeared on over 221 million cards in APMEA. Consumers can now make online debit point of sale purchases with their Maestro cards at over 1 million merchant locations in APMEA.
