MasterCard 2011 Annual Report Download - page 7

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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 focus on personal consumption expenditures, the trend towards electronic forms of
payment and growing MasterCard’s share in electronic payments, including with innovative solutions
and new technology;
• the Company’s focus on growing its credit, debit, prepaid, commercial and payment transaction
processing offerings;
• the Company’s focus on diversifying its 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 technology and strategic efforts and alliances
with respect to e-Commerce, mobile and other initiatives;
• the Company’s focus on chip-enabled technology;
• the stability of economies around the globe;
• the Company’s advertising and marketing strategy and investment;
• the potential reduction in the Company’s tax rate over time;
• the Company’s belief that its existing cash balances, its cash flow generating capabilities, its borrowing
capacity and its access to capital resources are sufficient to satisfy its future operating cash needs,
capital asset purchases, outstanding commitments and other liquidity requirements associated with its
existing operations and potential litigation obligations; and
• the manner and amount of purchases by the Company pursuant to its share repurchase program,
dependent upon price and market conditions.
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 or other legislative or regulatory activity 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;
potential or incurred liability, limitations on business and other penalties resulting from litigation; potential
changes in tax laws; 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 guarantees of settlement and certain other third-party obligations;
disruptions to our transaction processing systems and other services; 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 and effectively deliver our
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