MasterCard Inc. on Monday named Carlos Menendez to lead its global debit card business.

The payments processor said Menendez, 40, will join the company as group executive, global debit, effective Sept. 1. Menendez most recently worked as chief operating officer for Western Europe at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years.

MasterCard President and CEO Ajay Banga, who took the helm earlier this month, also is a former Citigroup executive.

Menendez will be responsible for strategic development for MasterCard's debit products. The company's debit business lags competitor Visa in both dollar volume and the number of transactions.

The company ended 2009 with about 262 million debit cards in circulation worldwide, and processed about 10.67 billion transactions last year. That was up from 224 million debit cards and 9.29 billion transactions the prior year.[Read the full article]

"You want to know that decision makers are members of the community," says Lewis. "That's going to make the difference on big things like mortgages, but it's also about service and accountability."To test a bank's commitment to local, Lewis advises customers to walk into any branch and ask to meet the management team. "If they're in some other state, that's a bad sign," he says. Lewis also recommends that customers call their bank's headquarters. If there's no way to get senior management on the phone, there's a high likelihood that the bank doesn't take customer service seriously.

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When you use a large national bank, there's a perception that you'll have a coast-to-coast ATM network. [Read the full article]