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Mastercard (MA), PayPal Expand Card Offering Across Europe

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Mastercard Incorporated (MA - Free Report) recently unveiled that along with PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL - Free Report) , it continues to expand the global presence of PayPal Business Debit Mastercard. The debit card offering has now been extended to four new countries of Europe — Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, and Portugal. The card is already in use across the United States and several European countries.

Shares of Mastercard lost 2.4% on Sep 2, replicating declines in broader markets.

Coming back, the card, which was first launched across the United States almost two decades ago, does not carry any monthly fees, foreign exchange fees and has a meager ATM withdrawal charge.

The PayPal Business Debit Mastercard enables small businesses to undergo eligible spending and earn cash back rewards. Besides, small businesses can enjoy rapid access to their available PayPal funds either through online means or at Mastercard-accepting stores.

The recent move reinforces Mastercard’s continuous efforts to bolster its presence across Europe. Mastercard and PayPal have been making efforts to roll out their debit card offering over the past two years in a bid to benefit small businesses in Europe. The card is mainly utilized for buying digital marketing services and retail goods for inventory and supplies across European markets, where it is currently in use.

Mastercard has been the preferred choice of partner for companies owing to its strong brand name, local knowledge, extensive network and global presence. The aforementioned factors are primarily the reason behind PayPal’s choosing Mastercard for issuing debit cards to PayPal’s business clients globally. The partnership with Mastercard will enable business customers of PayPal to incur expenses from PayPal accounts across Mastercard acceptance locations of more than 52 million across the globe.

The latest partnership reflects yet another significant endeavor of Mastercard in helping small businesses. This initiative comes at an opportune time as the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the smooth functioning of small businesses’ operations. The PayPal Business Debit Mastercard can tap the prevailing scenario as it equips owners of small businesses with accelerated and seamless access to funds and earn cash back, resulting in enhanced business growth prospects.

Mastercard has always been committed to providing necessary assistance to small businesses, ranging from offering technological assistance to helping them in rolling out new products and enhanced payments solutions. It has also partnered with several financial institutions and undertaken substantial investments for supporting growth prospects of small businesses. Through these initiatives, the company aims to bring more small businesses under the ambit of a growing digital economy.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Shares of Mastercard, which carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), have gained 1.9% in a year against the industry’s decline of 6.1%.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the financial transaction services space include EVERTEC, Inc. (EVTC - Free Report) and Equifax Inc. (EFX - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

EVERTEC and Equifax have a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 28.42% and 17.71%, on average, respectively.

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