DUBAI — MasterCard has shifted PR duties for the Middle East and North Africa to TRACCS, after working with H+K Strategies for the past 18 months.

The decision follows last year's arrival at MasterCard of Jumanah Anter as SVP of global communications for the company's Middle East and African region.

TRACCS EVP and UAE MD Majdi Al Ayed, confirmed the news, calling it "a very prestigious win for us."

Meanwhile, H+K Strategies regional CEO Sconaid McGeachin added that her agency "has had a successful 1.5 years with MasterCard in MENA." 

"During this time H+K provided strategic counsel and multi market programmes across the MENA region to drive business results," added McGeachin, noting that MasterCard has now taken "a new approach to their communications."

The Middle East and Africa is MasterCard's fastest-growing region. The company revealed last year that it had doubled the number of its cards in the Middle East and Africa to about 100m over the past three years. That still represents a small proportion of MasterCard's 1.4bn global cards, in a region where 90% of transactions still use cash.