MasterCard launches industry's first unified global vendor program

The MasterCard Vendor Program (MVP) gives vendors a single point of access to the comprehensive business and technical information needed to most effectively and efficiently serve financial institutions using MasterCard's payments platform.

Vendors in the MVP have access to up-to-the-minute technical information and support, as well as business and product briefings from a variety of sources within the organization, including operations, chip, mobile commerce, e-commerce and debit.

Participating vendors also are able to access electronic information via MasterCard's global information portal, MasterCard OnLine. These resources, supported by a dedicated Vendor Relations team and periodic vendor forums, provide MVP participants in the Middle East and North Africa as well as worldwide with a comprehensive toolkit for projects involving MasterCard payments services.

'MasterCard's goal with MVP was to make it easier for our members to build partnerships with vendors in a rapidly-changing payments environment,' said Jerry McElhatton, senior executive vice president, MasterCard International. 'We are reaching the industry's leading vendors, including those in the Middle East and North Africa, and giving them the information they need to ensure that they are able to support our product requirements, thus providing a way for our members to streamline delivery of new products and services to their customers.'

More than 75 vendors currently participate in the program. Participants in the program are readily identifiable by their use of an MVP identifier on Web sites and marketing collateral.

'The MasterCard Vendor Program has proven to be a valuable resource for PaySys,' said Barry Koletsky, senior compliance officer for PaySys International, Inc. 'MasterCard has readily provided us with the support to meet the needs of our customers and fulfill industry requirements. The staff is very knowledgeable and always available to help with any questions or issues that arise.'

At the same time, MVP provides an important resource for MasterCard member financial institutions, which can access vendor listings to find program participants capable of meeting a range of product, service or consulting needs.

The MVP consolidates all MasterCard vendor support programs - the Chip Vendor Services Program, the Europay Vendor Program, and the original MasterCard Vendor Program - to create the industry's first unified, global vendor program. The program supports a complete range of vendors that member financial institutions may need to support their MasterCard program, including card, terminal and software providers.

'As a supplier of smart cards to MasterCard's customers around the world, we need to ensure that our products are precisely aligned with what banks need,' said Graham Carson, head of the Banking Business Unit at Orga Card Systems UK Ltd. 'One of the many benefits of the MasterCard Vendor Program is that we receive both business and technical information directly from MasterCard's experts, thereby ensuring that our development efforts match MasterCard's requirements. As part of the MVP, Orga can now easily be identified by banks as ready to deploy MasterCard products.'