Transition from Maestro to Mastercard Debit

After more than 30 years in circulation, Mastercard has decided to discontinue the Maestro debit card product, replacing it with the Mastercard debit card commonly used in the United States and many other parts of the world.

The main reason for this decision despite the popularity of Maestro throughout Europe and parts of the Latin America & the Caribbean, is its limitation for face-to-face transactions while ecommerce has been growing exponentially especially since the Covid-pandemic. In addition, this transition to Mastercard debit will benefit customers by providing cardholders with:

• Worldwide acceptance (Mastercard is accepted in far more locations than Maestro)
• Support for recurring online payments like Netflix and Spotify
• Support for preauthorizations common with hotel bookings and car rentals !

Therefore, since, 2023 Maestro issuing banks will have switched to issuing Mastercard Debit, where some may opt to issue Visa Debit cards instead.

We continued to see a shift from cash to card account based payments, especially with the introduction in our market of contactless transactions. This trend is expected to continue as we offer more types of acceptance options.

Even though that Maestro cards already in circulation will remain active until they expire, Merchants could have seen already a gradual shift from Maestro to Mastercard and Visa Debit transaction volume as local and foreign Maestro issuers make the switch to Mastercard or Visa debit cards. As a result, you will also be able to accept Local Debit Card payments on your website and via social media. CMB has had to update its merchant agreement in order to accommodate these market developments, which will be presented to you, for review, discussed in person (as needed) with your CMB account manager and/or CMB Merchant Management.

All the existing Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) will remain as is where the CMB Bankomatiko+ Mastercard Debit rate will be set equal to your current Maestro rate.

In order to accommodate these market developments CMB has expanded its Merchant Discount Rate categories to include the
following existing and new categories:

• Visa/Mastercard/Discover
• Maestro
• Kompa Leon
• CMB Bankomatiko+ Debit
• Local Mastercard Debit
• Local Visa Debit

These categories will be expanded further during 2024 to also include:

• Visa Credit (separate from Mastercard credit)
• Foreign Visa Debit (also applicable to V-Pay while still in circulation)
• Mastercard Credit (separate from Visa credit)
• Foreign Mastercard Debit
• American Express
• Discover
• Maestro Local (temporarily)
• Maestro Foreign (temporarily)