More than plastic in your wallet: How Mastercard continues to surprise

From developing an AI tool that mentors small business owners to designing cards tailored to fit the lived experiences of people who are blind or partially sighted, Mastercard has been committed to driving innovation and accelerating financial inclusion. “Everything starts with understanding a need,” says Mastercard Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar. “We focus our efforts in areas that are authentic to our business because that’s an important part of doing well by doing good. When we can bring those two things together, we know that we’ll have the biggest impact.”

Through its tireless research and thoughtful partnerships, Mastercard’s successes have benefited people from a wide variety of professional and personal backgrounds. Here, Rajamannar discusses some of Mastercard’s more recent initiatives.

Can you describe the ethos behind Mastercard’s purpose-driven programs?We say that our focus is on connecting people to their passions, their purpose, and each other. That intersection, often enabled and scaled using breakthrough technologies, is where we can make a difference. We’ve identified ten universal passions that center our work—such as music, culinary, sports, and entertainment. When we layer someone’s passion with purpose, it encodes the memory of that experience long-term. That leads to even greater connection with consumers.

For example, we’ve worked with Stand Up to Cancer in the U.S. for years, and we just finished our latest campaign. Every time cardholders used their Mastercard at their favorite restaurants, we made a donation to Stand Up to Cancer. We donated $5 million this year! This allows cardholders to enjoy their passion for food while supporting a vital cause. Over the course of our partnership, we’ve donated more than $75 million, which has helped fund research that has contributed to the development of nine new cancer therapies. It’s having an impact.

Last year you launched Where to Settle, a tool designed for Ukrainian refugees looking for places where they can begin again. Have there been any updates?Early in the days of the war, millions of refugees arrived in Poland needing support and care. Many large cities like Warsaw were beyond capacity. Leveraging Mastercard’s data-for-good approach, we created a platform called Where to Settle to help Ukrainian refugees identify optimal towns and cities throughout the country where they could settle with their families—and that would help to support their economic inclusion with lower costs of living and job opportunities. Since its launch, hundreds of thousands of people have used the tool.

But in the face of ongoing conflict, our efforts haven’t stopped. Following the outbreak of the war, we observed a remarkable surge in Poland’s entrepreneurial spirit. In 2022 alone, more than 310,000 companies opened in Poland, with roughly 1,000 new businesses created every day. That’s why we introduced Where to Start. This digital tool is designed to help Polish and Ukrainian entrepreneurs identify the prime locations to open their businesses, while also helping existing local businesses around them to thrive even more.

Mastercard is also using tech to help entrepreneurs via Small Business AI. How did that program get started?Small businesses have been a huge focus of ours for years. They’re the backbone of economies around the world. Yet, no matter where you are, it can be really hard to get started. There is so much information out there—trying to navigate it, find credible sources, and then act on it—it’s a lot for small businesses.

In the same research, we found that 88% of small businesses say they highly value mentorship—people who’ve been there, who’ve been successful, who share their stories. That’s where the idea behind Small Business AI came to life. This tool is designed to remove the friction and get access to information that is credible, fast, and easily digestible—a one-stop shop for navigating questions and challenges.

How did Mastercard design Touch Card, which is designed for blind and low-vision cardholders?You’ve probably noticed that embossed numbers on debit and credit cards have started to disappear. Now, it’s more difficult than ever for people who have any form of vision impairment to identify the right card in their wallet and be able to orient their card and pay independently. That’s a big problem.

When we first started to develop Touch Card, we thought, how do we use Braille as a solution? However, we quickly learned this wasn’t viable because only one in 10 blind people are fluent in Braille. We worked with the Royal National Institute of Blind People to make sure we were drawing on experts’ knowledge to help us land on the final design and bring it to market.

We created this very simple notch system. There’s a different notch standard for each of the cards—squared for credit, round for debit, and triangular for prepaid. It’s easy to feel in your wallet. The standard has been developed to work at any point of sale, with any ATM. It’s so simple, you wonder why no one thought of it before! Now it’s live in more than 50 countries with banks including Citizens and Santander.

Mastercard has done a lot of research on the LGBTQIA+ community’s shopping experiences. What prompted that research, and how did it lead to True Name?We’ve been long-time allies of the LGBTQIA+ community because we have a diverse workforce. We understand the need for unique products and services for our diverse consumer base. Research uncovered what seems obvious, but something that is a very negative situation our LGBTQIA+cardholders were experiencing: that you have to use your legal name to get any form of credit or debit card. Many transgender people haven’t gone through a legal process to change their names. Not only is that name an ongoing reminder of what they left behind—and often a lot of pain and anxiety—but it also causes huge concern at point of sale, where card users are open to ridicule and questions.

We wanted to see what we could do to remove that nasty friction from the point of sale. It required us to spearhead another industry change. It led to True Name, a card feature that allows cardholders to use their preferred name—not their chosen one.

We had to work with the banking industry to change how they have people sign up for cards and the approval process. It was very meaningful work, and we’re very proud of how it helps to drive society forward.