More than ever, technology is become more intelligent and user-friendly. New developments in the payments industry, together with easier access to financial technology, are helping SMEs, supply chains, and other services integrate into the digital economy.

Michael Miebach, the CEO of Mastercard, describes in his annual letter how the firm has assisted in bringing more businesses and individuals into the digital economy over the last year and how it intends to do so going forward.

Mastercard: Leading the way towards a global digital economy

Mastercard has developed many of the payment technologies that may enable today's digitalization in partnership with its numerous industry partners. These technologies include contactless cards, tokenization, and cybersecurity defenses.

"Hundreds of millions of people use our global network every day to safely and conveniently transfer money, make payments, and get paid," claims Michael.

"In order to provide more value, better connections, and more efficiency, we are seeking a future that accelerates these developments.

"More individualized retail and banking experiences. Commercial services that help companies of all sizes streamline their operations. cybersecurity fueled by AI that keeps everyone one step ahead of con artists.

"This is how we're empowering people and driving economies."

PEOPLE ARE EMPOWERED BY MASTERCARD:

• Create value by being ambitious and creative in order to benefit our people, investors, and partners.

• Grow as a team by supporting one another to be amazing

• Quickly prioritize what is important and make adjustments as required.

2023: Double-digit growth and driving economies

Mastercard's aim to fuel the digital economy saw another successful year in 2023 with double-digit increase in net revenue, gross domestic volume, and switched transactions year over year.

This was fueled even further in November of last year when Mastercard was given permission to begin offering domestic payment processing services in China. Michael believes that this would enable Mastercard to achieve unprecedented growth rates.

In fact, the behemoth in payment processing adheres to three fundamental principles, or a "growth algorithm," in order to maintain its level of success over time.

The first is growing its payment business, with Mastercard vying to provide the widest range of payment choices, guaranteeing that its services are preferred everywhere.

Michael says, "We're getting new business in consumer payments, which is evidence that our efforts to increase digitisation are effective."

"We greatly increased our cooperation with UniCredit last year. The group decided to use Mastercard in 12 markets and 13 of its banks. We also became Citizens Bank's only payments network in the US."

The second is the expansion of Mastercard's offerings, which includes the introduction of new services and products that make use of cutting-edge technology to keep the company at the forefront of innovation.

Michael goes on, "Creating efficiency and value is our main goal in services. Mastercard, for instance, has been utilizing predictive AI for years, particularly in its fraud detection and cybersecurity solutions to safeguard the billions of transactions that pass through our network.

"To continue this work, we introduced Decision Intelligence Pro earlier this year, which enhances banks' fraud detection efforts by utilizing generative AI to anticipate transaction legitimacy.

Even as we investigate the possibilities of generative AI, there is much more predictive AI can accomplish. In order to make every digital experience increasingly smarter, safer, and more customized, we are striving to ethically incorporate AI into even more of what we do.

Last but not least, Mastercard is keeping up its efforts to embrace new networks in an effort to expand into nearby markets and use its experience running international payment networks to benefit clients.

Michael goes on, "One example of this effort is our work to develop new ways to integrate open banking and digital identity into our core payments and services."

For example, in many nations, digital ID has become an essential means of voting, accessing government services, and making online purchases.

Over 95% of US deposit accounts and over 3,000 banks in Europe may be accessed using our open banking assets.

Looking ahead to 2024, Mastercard wants to keep working to create a more intelligent, secure, and welcoming digital world while providing its clients with the everyday payment services they need.

Michael ends by saying, "That is the expectation you - our customers, partners, account holders, and shareholders - have for us." "We focus on this responsibility every day."