MasterCard 2010 Annual Report Download - page 13

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 13 of the 2010 MasterCard annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 162

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138
  • 139
  • 140
  • 141
  • 142
  • 143
  • 144
  • 145
  • 146
  • 147
  • 148
  • 149
  • 150
  • 151
  • 152
  • 153
  • 154
  • 155
  • 156
  • 157
  • 158
  • 159
  • 160
  • 161
  • 162

Forward-Looking Statements
This Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts may be
forward-looking statements. When used in this Report, the words “believe,” “expect,” “could,” “may,” “would”,
“will”, “trend” and similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
statements relate to the Company’s future prospects, developments and business strategies and include, without
limitation, statements relating to:
• the Company’s belief in the continuing trend towards electronic forms of payment;
• the Company’s focus on growing its credit, debit, prepaid and payment transaction processing offerings
(including statements related to the expanded opportunity for domestic transaction processing, the open
and competitive market created by SEPA (defined below), extending our processing capabilities in the
payment value chain, continuing to develop opportunities to further enhance our IPS (defined below)
offerings and global presence, and the pending acquisition of the prepaid card program management
operations of Travelex Holdings Ltd. (as described below));
• the Company’s focus on diversifying our ‘business (including seeking new areas of growth, expanding
acceptance points and maintaining unsurpassed acceptance and successfully working with new business
partners);
• the Company’s focus on building new businesses through e-Commerce, mobile and other initiatives;
• potential opportunities related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in
the United States;
• the effects of economic recoveries in areas such as the Asia/Pacific and Latin America regions;
• the Company’s advertising and marketing strategy and investment;
• the potential reduction in the Company’s tax rate over time;
• and the Company’s belief that cash generated from operations, our borrowing capacity and our access to
capital resources are sufficient to meet our future operating capital needs and litigation settlement
obligations.
Many factors and uncertainties relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are
difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control, influence whether any forward-looking
statements can or will be achieved. Any one of those factors could cause our actual results to differ materially
from those expressed or implied in writing in any forward-looking statements made by MasterCard or on its
behalf. We believe there are certain risk factors that are important to our business, and these could cause actual
results to differ from our expectations. Such risk factors include: litigation decisions, regulation and legislation
related to interchange fees and related practices; regulation established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act in the United States; regulation in one jurisdiction or of one product resulting in
regulation in other jurisdictions or of other products; competitive issues caused by government actions;
regulation of the payments industry, consumer privacy, data use and/or security; appeals of currency conversion
case settlements; future reserves, incurred liability, limitations on business and other penalties resulting from
litigation; competition in the payments industry; competitive pressure on pricing; banking industry consolidation;
loss of significant business from significant customers; merchant activity; our relationship and the relationship of
our competitors to our customers; brand perceptions and reputation; inability to grow our debit business,
particularly in the United States; global economic events and the overall business environment; decline in cross-
border travel; the effect of general economic and global political conditions on consumer spending trends;
exposure to loss or illiquidity due to settlement obligation defaults by our customers; disruptions to our
transaction processing systems; account data breaches; reputation damage from increases in fraudulent activity;
the inability to keep pace with technological developments in the industry; the effect of adverse currency
fluctuation; the inability to adequately manage change; acquisition integration issues; and issues relating to our
3