Moving toward a world without cash

Innovation in China

According to Ling, the company's core business in China remains cooperating with issuing banks.

"Launching a variety of card products with Chinese banks to cater for the different demands from different customers has been the core business for us over the past years," Ling said. "Meanwhile, we will continue our commitment to innovation and brand marketing."

Visa, MasterCard and China UnionPay are the major players in the electronic payment industry.

As MasterCard is a publicly listed company, Ling said he cannot disclose its growth target this year, but it will lay out a target based on the industry benchmark.

Statistics from China's central bank showed that around 3.4 billion bank cards had been issued by the end of the third quarter of 2012, up 21.2 percent year-on-year. Among them, 3.08 billion were debit cards, up 21.4 percent year-on-year, and 318 million were credit cards, up 18.8 percent year-on-year.

Ling said the company is still confident in China's economy despite the recent slowdown in the nation's economic growth rate.

Cross-border business is a major element of MasterCard's business in China.

"With the development of tourism and the increasing use of electronic payment by Chinese consumers, we believe more bank cards will be issued and our business will continue to grow," said Ling

The company will strengthen cooperation with different banks to tap different cities.

In first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, MasterCard has mainly joined hands with large banks to provide products and services to customers.