November 5, 2015/MasterCard

Last night at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and before a capacity audience of more than 850 people, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) honored MasterCard with its Corporate Leader Award.  The IRC – an international humanitarian organisation founded in 1933 at the suggestion of Albert Einstein – recognized MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga’s visionary leadership and MasterCard for being a company “at the leading edge of innovation that uses its business model and expertise to advance social good.”

The prestigious award comes on the heels of MasterCard’s recent launch of the MasterCard Aid Network which was exhibited during the pre-dinner reception. The MasterCard Aid Network was co-created with several humanitarian organizations after two years of collaboration, matching their pain points with MasterCard solutions built around its technology, products, and innovation.  The result is a service that replaces paper vouchers with electronic vouchers.  Save the Children has already piloted MasterCard Aid successfully in war-torn Yemen, where it was brought to scale a month early this past summer.  The IRC has begun using MasterCard Aid in Nigeria to distribute aid to those displaced within their country.

MasterCard’s commitment to empowering more people through its technology – and the recognition MasterCard has received from organizations like the IRC – shine an even brighter light on the company’s global goal of connecting 500 million people into the financial system by 2020. MasterCard can already point to connecting nearly 200 million people toward its 500 million goal, which the company first announced at the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings earlier this year in Washington, DC.