New MasterCard SpendingPulse™ for Small Business Report Shows Small Retailers Outperforming Overall Retail Sales in June, with

  New MasterCard SpendingPulse™ for Small Business Report Shows Small
  Retailers Outperforming Overall Retail Sales in June, with 8% Year-Over-Year
  Growth

   New monthly report brings MasterCard Advisors and Wells Fargo together,
   providing hard-to-find data on spending at smaller retailers in the U.S.

 To tweet related video, copy and paste: http://bit.ly/OGdM1q to your Twitter
      handle with the hashtag #SpendingPulse, #WellsFargo and #SmallBiz

Business Wire

PURCHASE, N.Y. & SAN FRANCISCO -- July 18, 2012

A SpendingPulse™ report released today by MasterCard Advisors, the
professional services arm of MasterCard (NYSE: MA) in partnership with Wells
Fargo (NYSE: WFC), America’s No. 1 small business lender, found that June
spending at small retailers increased 8% compared to June 2011. This was
higher than the overall U.S. retail growth rate of 6.9%. The June report also
found that sales growth at small retailers has now outperformed growth of
overall retail sales for 9 consecutive months, since October 2011.

SpendingPulse is a macroeconomic report that measures U.S. retail sales across
a wide number of industry subsectors, as well as in total, delivering
information earlier than other data sources. The new report  MasterCard
SpendingPulse for Small Business, provides a new view gauging the health of
sales within the small retailer segment of the economy, which are retailers
with less than $35 million in annual sales and less than 200 employees -- most
have less than $10 million in annual sales. It offers aggregated information
on retail sales trends that small business stakeholders can use to make
informed and timely decisions. “Small retailers account for approximately a
third of total retail sales in the U.S., so a detailed understanding of this
sector is crucial to understanding the economy as a whole,” said Michael
McNamara, Global Solutions Leader, MasterCard SpendingPulse.

Each MasterCard SpendingPulse for Small Business report includes information
about current retail sales (excluding autos and gasoline), year-over-year
growth in total retail sales (excluding automotive sales), as well as views
with and without food services. The report provides valuable information for
all stakeholders who support or work with small businesses, including
merchants who sell to small retailers, advertisers, and economists. “With the
essential role of small businesses in our nation’s economic recovery, there’s
a great need for more insight into small business retail sales,” said Marc
Bernstein, head of Small Business for Wells Fargo. He continued, “We’re
pleased to join MasterCard in introducing a new report that tracks these kinds
of retail sales trends and will provide timely data on what’s happening in the
smaller retailing landscape.”

McNamara added, “We developed this report in partnership with Wells Fargo, a
leader in serving the small business segment, to provide small business
stakeholders with quick and easy access to information that will help them
better understand how changes in the economic environment are impacting
smaller retailers. Looking into its historical data, it is helpful to know,
for example, that although we’ve seen smaller retailers grow at a higher clip
than overall retail over the past 9 months, this follows a period from
November 2009-October 2011 when larger retailers had bounced back from the
recession more robustly than their smaller counterparts.”

MasterCard SpendingPulse for Small Business is an extension of the MasterCard
SpendingPulse report, the leading macro-economic indicator reporting on
national retail sales, and is based on aggregate sales activity in the
MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment
forms, including cash and check. Launched in March, 2006, MasterCard
SpendingPulse, made available to subscribers by MasterCard Advisors, provides
clients with unmatched insights and solutions to help them drive business
impact and financial gain.

Since August 2003, Well Fargo also has joined with Gallup to conduct a
quarterly survey of small business owners across the nation that measures
small business owner perceptions of their present situation (past 12 months)
and future expectations (next 12 months) in six key areas: financial
situation, cash flow, revenues, capital spending allocation, hiring, and
credit availability. The most recent report is posted on Wells Fargo’s
Business Insight Resource Center.

About MasterCard SpendingPulse

A macro‐economic indicator, MasterCard SpendingPulse reports on national
retail sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard
payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms,
including cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent
MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard
Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard International
Incorporated.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified,
community-based financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets.
Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides
banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance
through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com),
and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s customers who
conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 full-time
equivalent team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in United
States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune’s 2012 rankings of
America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our
customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.

Wells Fargo loans more money to America’s small businesses than any other bank
(2002-2010 Community Reinvestment Act government data) and is a leading lender
to women- and diverse-owned businesses. Wells Fargo provides a wide range of
financial solutions to meet the needs of business owners nationwide. Through
the Wells Fargo Business Insight Resource Center, business owners can access
an informative selection of videos and articles featuring expert advice and
best practices. For more information visit wellsfargo.com/biz or call the
National Business Banking Center at 1-800-CALL-WELLS.

About MasterCard Advisors

As the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide, MasterCard Advisors
is uniquely qualified to provide clients with insights and solutions that
drive tangible impact and financial gain. MasterCard Advisors provides
payments consulting, information, analytics, and customized services that
deliver value to its customers. In doing so, the company uses information to
create products and services in which privacy and security are fundamental to
their design. A technology company that is an electronic payments leader,
MasterCard is committed to the responsible use of information and pledges
strong privacy protection for the transaction data the company processes. Its
information management practices support the company’s mission to make
payments safe, simple and smart. For more information, go to
www.mastercardadvisors.com

About MasterCard

MasterCard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a global payments and technology
company. It operates the world’s fastest payments processing network,
connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and
businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard’s products
and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling,
running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more
efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MasterCardNews, join the
discussion on the Cashless Conversations Blog and subscribe for the latest
news.

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Contact:

Media:
For MasterCard:
Meir Kahtan Public Relations, LLC
Meir Kahtan, +1 212-575-8188
mkahtan@rcn.com
or
For Wells Fargo:
Jim Seitz, 612-316-2447
Jim.seitz@wellsfargo.com