MasterCard to merge Maestro and Cirus

MasterCard plans to merge its two brands - Maestro and Cirrus - and have one brand. Maestro is MasterCard's global debit card. It is a widely accepted online debit programme with a subscriber base of over 250 million card-holders all over the world.

Cirrus is MasterCard's global automatic teller machine network with 463,000 ATMs around the world. The other products of MasterCard are: MasterCard credit cards and Mondex cards.

Maestro and Cirrus are 'pay now' products, while MasterCard credit card is 'pay later' and Mondex 'pay before products.'

Maestro was the first debit card launched in India in 1998 in collaboration with Citibank under the Suvidha scheme. The city selected for the launch was Bangalore, followed by Delhi and Mumbai in July this year.

According to Samir Vakil, country manager, MasterCard International (for India) and vice-president (Asia Pacific), Suvidha has already reported 42,00 customers.

MasterCard has two rivals in India. One is Amex and other is global arch rival Visa.

MasterCard has managed to get more banks on board. Times Bank signed up in May. Six more banks are expected to issue deposit access cards by the year-end.

MasterCard started its operations in India in 1981. It was the first to issue licence to a local bank, the Central Bank of India. Also it was the first to extend global telecommunications network, Banknet, to support Indian members for intra-country clearing in 1989.

In debit cards, MasterCard claims 70 per cent of the world market share.