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European financial institutions had issued 196 million MasterCard-branded cards by 30 June, up 3.7% from 189 million cards for the same period last year, MasterCard Worldwide says in a statement Tuesday. The total excludes cards that carry the Maestro and Cirrus brands. The Maestro debit brand appears on some 305 million cards, virtually the same as a year ago. For the second quarter ended 30 June, purchase transactions increased 7.1%, to nearly 1.67 billion from 1.56 billion for the same period last year. Purchase volume in Europe reached US$130 billion (90.3 billion euros), up 3% from the same period last year.
