John Mayer

'If corporates want this service from their banks, then they should go and ask for it,' says vice president John Mayer who visited Dubai from New York last week to promote this very useful Internet facility.

'Our Smart Data Online system is relatively cheap and easy for banks to install,' he explains. 'MasterCard has developed all the software and security protection is to the highest standards'.

The Smart Online Data system offers more than just an instant online corporate credit card statement in real time, which means that accounts departments do not have to wait 30 to 60 days to see a statement of expenditures. It also provides far more detailed information about where a corporate credit card is being used, and what is being charged to the card.

So is this a kind of spy in your wallet? 'Not really,' says Mr. Mayer. 'But the management does have a right to know how its money is being spent. It is the company's money. And users also have access to the same data to review their spending online. Indeed there is the past 16 months of data available'.

This year HSBC became the first bank to roll out the Smart Data Online system for its corporate clients in the region, and Saudi British Bank launches its service this week.

But Mr. Mayer is keen to get other banks to sign up for the system, and is traveling to Egypt next. 'The system is useful anywhere that there is good Internet access. But we do have other options for areas not on the Net to track card spending through a PC application'.

Still the advantages of an Internet based system are pretty clear. No new software to install, and instant access from anywhere in the world, at any time. This is also a very simple system to use, as anyone with Net access on their own UAE credit card will agree.

'The banks here are keen to customize the Internet statement into their own house style,' says Mr. Mayer, who joined MasterCard in 1996 after 15 years with SBC Corporation. 'And that is something that we are able to offer without any problem'.

Clients do not necessarily have to be corporates either. Mr. Meyer is quick to point out that MasterCard has many US federal and state government bodies using its system in the United States. Thus MasterCard is providing another element to complement the e-government revolution now sweeping across the region.

Indeed, over 10,000 organizations have already implemented this system worldwide in 17 countries, and the UAE is the latest to come online. So far only 10 companies have taken up this solution here, but this is bound to mushroom as tracking corporate expenses is an important accounting function and accessing statements online costs nothing and is more efficient.