Welcome to Mastercard Incorporated's annual meeting of stockholders. This meeting is being held in a virtual-only format. If you encounter any technical difficulties accessing the virtual meeting portal, please call 844-986-0822 in the United States or 303-562-9302 internationally, or otherwise reference the support numbers at the bottom of the virtual stockholder meeting login page for technical support. While we do not anticipate any technical issues during this call, in the event such issues do occur, we request that you wait 10 minutes for those issues to be resolved. In the unlikely event that these issues are not able to be resolved, the chair may adjourn or expedite the annual meeting or take such action that the chair or secretary of the meeting determines is appropriate in light of the circumstances.
Further instructions will be posted on the company's investor relations page within 24 hours if, for some reason, this meeting does not conclude or continue today. There will be a question-and-answer session during this meeting. Stockholders had the opportunity to submit questions prior to the start of the meeting, and stockholders who entered the meeting using their control number also may submit questions during the meeting by typing questions into the text box on your screen and clicking the button to submit. Please include your name and organization with your question. There will also be a business presentation, and both this presentation and the Q&A session may include forward-looking statements about Mastercard's future performance. Actual performance could differ materially from what is suggested by the comments today, and information about the factors that could affect future performance is summarized in Mastercard's recent SEC filings.
The slides for the presentation, including non-GAAP reconciliations, are available on Mastercard's website. It is now my pleasure to turn to Merit Janow, Board Chair of Mastercard, who will begin the meeting. Ms. Janow, please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Mastercard's annual meeting of stockholders, which I now call to order. I'm Merit Janow, Board Chair of Mastercard. Thank you for joining us online for this year's annual meeting, which we are holding virtually. We are happy that you can join us today and hope you are well. On behalf of the board, I'd like to express our gratitude to our employees who may be listening. It is the ingenuity, diversity, drive, and decency of our people that powers our business, propels our innovation, drives commercially sustainable social impact, and advances inclusive economic growth around the world. For this, we thank you. We have formal business to attend to this morning. The agenda and rules of conduct for this meeting are available in the materials in the portal, and were also posted on our website prior to the start of the meeting.
As a reminder, if you are attending using your 16-digit control number, you may vote or submit questions during the meeting today. The voting polls are open and will remain open until we close them later in the meeting. If you have already submitted your vote, you do not need to do anything further. If you have not voted yet or want to change your vote during the meeting, you can do so by clicking the vote button on your screen. All of the director nominees, including Michael Miebach, our CEO, are in attendance today. In addition, our Chief Administrative Officer, Tim Murphy, is in attendance and will act as secretary for this meeting.
We also have several members of our senior management in attendance, including our CFO, Sachin Mehra, our Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer, Rob Beard, our Chief People Officer, Michael Fraccaro, our Chief Risk Officer, Karen Griffin. Michael Gutowski from PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, is also present. Although PricewaterhouseCoopers has indicated that it does not wish to make a statement, a representative is available to respond to appropriate questions you might have related to their engagement. We have also designated Donna Corso of Morrow Sodali as inspector of elections for this meeting, and she has taken the oath of office. I have a copy of the notice of the meeting together with an affidavit of mailing, and the proxy materials have been made available to our stockholders of record.
A certified list of stockholders as of the record date is also available for inspection. Let me turn now to the matters for consideration. There are eight proposals to be voted on today, each of which is described in our proxy statement, including the vote required to approve each proposal. The three matters presented by management are as follows. First, the election of 12 nominees for directors. Second, the advisory approval of our executive compensation. And third, the ratification of the appointment of PwC as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2024. In addition, we have five stockholders presenting proposals this morning for consideration. Your board is grateful for the opportunity to engage with stockholders regularly on governance matters. First, a stockholder is presenting proposal four, a proposal requesting transparency in lobbying. We welcome John Chevedden, the proponent, to present a statement with respect to this proposal.
Operator, please open Mr. Chevedden's line. Mr. Chevedden, we appreciate your interest in the company, and you may proceed. You'll have three minutes to present your proposal.
Hello, this is John Chevedden. I move proposal four asking Mastercard to provide a report on its state and federal lobbying expenditures, including indirect funding of lobbying through trade associations and social welfare groups. We are asking companies to disclose all dark money payments to third-party groups that use money to influence policy. Mastercard fails to do this. Mastercard does not issue a comprehensive report of its own direct lobbying. That data is scattered among federal and state regulators and is difficult to obtain. We know that for its direct lobbying, Mastercard spent $51 million on federal lobbying since 2010, and there is incomplete disclosure about Mastercard spending at the state level, where finding this information is nearly impossible. Mastercard is required to report its lobbying, and Mastercard already has this information, so it could easily be provided to shareholders.
This proposal seeks full disclosure of dark money payments made to trade associations or social welfare groups where there are no limits or disclosure requirements. Mastercard shareholders face a blind spot here. Trade associations spend hundreds of millions to lobby. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent more than $1.8 billion since 1998. For 2023, Mastercard only reports giving an undisclosed amount greater than $25,000 in dues to 30 different trade associations and then reports a useless % of this undisclosed amount that is used for lobbying. That is not responsive to this proposal. Mastercard belongs to the Business Roundtable in the Chamber of Commerce, which together spent over $89 million in federal lobbying for 2023. How large are Mastercard's payments and what amounts are used for lobbying? Shareholders don't know, and that's a big problem.
Many of Mastercard's trade association lobbying positions contradict company public positions, resulting in values misalignment and reputation risks. For example, Mastercard publicly supports addressing climate change, yet the Business Roundtable has been a central actor against climate legislation for over two decades. Mastercard's support of the State Financial Officers Foundation, which has been attacking so-called woke capitalism, has attracted scrutiny for pandering to a handful of pro-fossil fuel U.S. politicians. Mastercard also fails to disclose payments to 504 social welfare organizations, which also lobby. Lobbying disclosure is a safety mechanism for Mastercard, its reputation, and shareholders, as what gets disclosed gets managed. Full disclosure of Mastercard's lobbying, including all third-party payments, will ensure proper oversight of Mastercard's lobbying. Please vote yes, transparency in lobbying, proposal four.
Thank you, Mr. Chevedden. Second, a stockholder is presenting proposal five, a proposal requesting a director election resignation by-law. Tim Murphy, Mastercard's Chief Administrative Officer, will read a statement provided by the proponent, New York City Carpenters Pension Fund, with respect to this proposal. We appreciate the proponent's interest in the company, and Tim, you may proceed. You will have up to three minutes to read the statement provided by the proponent, the New York City Carpenters Pension Fund.
Thank you, Merit. Here's the statement. My name is Michael Piccirillo, and I represent the New York City Carpenters Pension Fund, the proponent of the director election resignation by-law proposal. The fund is a long-term holder of Mastercard and supports the company's board of directors. We appreciate the dialogue on the director resignation issue by company representatives. Shareholders possess several rights as corporate owners, but none is more important than the right to elect the board of directors. The company has in place an election vote standard that requires a director nominee to receive a majority of the votes cast in order to be elected. Mastercard operates under Delaware law, which holds that an incumbent director who fails to achieve reelection continues to serve on the board as a holdover director.
The company has in place a by-law that requires such director to tender his or her resignation for board consideration. The board has full discretion and the final say in determining whether a director's resignation is accepted or rejected. The fund's proposal is straightforward and designed to strengthen the resignation by-law shareholder voting rights. There are two key provisions. First, a board can accept or reject a tendered resignation from an unelected director, but it would be required to articulate a compelling reason for rejecting the resignation. If the board finds that there is no compelling reason for the director remaining, then the board would accept the resignation and the director's service on the board would end. If the board rejects a resignation, the unelected holdover director would continue to serve on the board. This is when the second key feature of the proposal comes into play.
It provides that when an unelected director continues to serve and is defeated again at the next annual meeting, that unelected director's second resignation must be accepted by the board. Two strikes and an unelected director is out. The majority vote standard in director elections was instituted for the explicit purpose of giving shareholders a meaningful right to determine who is elected to a corporate board. Most current director resignation by-laws, including the company's, operate to seriously diminish the election voting rights of shareholders. Our proposal is designed to bolster shareholder voting rights in director elections. While it provides the board a strong measure of decision-making discretion, it limits that discretion by requiring the end of the board service of a twice-defeated director. We believe this is a measured reform which serves the best interests of Mastercard and its shareholders. Thank you. Signed, Michael Piccirillo.
Thank you, Tim, and thank you to the New York City Carpenters Pension Fund. Third, a stockholder is presenting proposal six, a proposal requesting a congruency report on privacy and human rights. The proponent, the National Legal and Policy Center, has prerecorded a statement with respect to this proposal. We appreciate the National Legal and Policy Center's interest in the company. Operator, could you please play the National Legal and Policy Center statement?
Mastercard and its chairman CEO, Michael Miebach, have been chomping at the bit for years to begin domestic payments processing in the People's Republic of China. In a race to get out in front of Visa, its strongest competitor, Mr. Miebach formed a business partnership with Chinese state-run NetsUnion Clearing Corporation, or NUCC. Mr. Miebach was so excited that the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, approved Mastercard's partnership with NUCC, while Visa has not been approved yet. Ever since that happened in November, Mastercard has raced to get operational in China. Mr. Miebach said, "The fact that we are well positioned today with banks gives us an edge here on moving forward at speed." It's amazing, really, how this whole deal suddenly came together. On November 15th, Chinese Communist Party Chairman and genocide practitioner Xi Jinping was honored at a $40,000 plate dinner in San Francisco.
Some of corporate America's most recognized China suck-up executives attended and sponsored the event, including Mastercard's Merit Janow. Only five days later, on November 20th, Mastercard announced that they had their approval for the joint venture with a communist-controlled NUCC. How about that? Take that, Visa. Now, our proposal, proposal six, asks Mastercard to explain how all this hot pursuit to do business with China's communist-controlled business entities is congruent with the human rights protections that Mastercard espouses. In its opposition response to our proposal, Mastercard says it has policies, lots of policies. It has a policy on information security, a policy on data protection, a policy on global data privacy, a policy on data responsibility, a policy on modern-day slavery, a policy on human trafficking, and a policy on human rights.
If you have questions or doubts about how Mastercard protects the oppressed in China, the company has many words on their many policy web pages in hopes that it will ease your concerns. Mr. Miebach wants you to believe that when Chairman Xi and the CCP come calling to Mastercard and its business partner NUCC looking for credit card data and transactions of dissident citizens who criticize the government, that Mastercard will point Chairman Xi to its various policy web pages. Those policies should put the fear of God into Chairman Xi, and his communist Gestapo will most certainly back off at the sight of them.
Seriously, Mastercard being in bed with China's abusive and dictatorial government in an effort to beat Visa to the punch is reminiscent of Ford and GM trying to outdo each other in order to service Hitler and the Nazis before and during World War II. The only difference now is we already know that China is committing slavery and genocide. Please vote for proposal six.
Thank you, National Legal and Policy Center. 4th, a stockholder is presenting proposal seven, a proposal requesting a human rights congruency report. We welcome Jordan Schachtel on behalf of the proponent, the National Center for Public Policy Research, to present a statement with respect to this proposal. Operator, please open Jordan Schachtel's line. We appreciate the National Center for Public Policy Research's interest in the company, and you may proceed. You will have up to three minutes to present the proposal on behalf of the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Hi, this is Jordan Schachtel, speaking in favor of proposal number 7. Following the barbaric terrorist attack on innocent Israeli civilians and tourists by Hamas and other terrorists on October 7th, the most lethal day for Jews since the Holocaust, a number of NGOs, some of which are claimed human rights organizations, outright refused to help the victims and their families. Then those same organizations rushed to vilify the victims. Many members of these organizations were complicit in the attacks. Such organizations include UNRWA, UNICEF, and Islamic Relief, to name a few. Mastercard contributes to, has a partnership with, or provides a donation platform for all of these affirmation organizations. We are asking for Mastercard to hit pause for the sake of its shareholders and ensure the company is not indirectly facilitating the flow of money to terrorists and criminal organizations.
The United States government is in the process of doing so. Why is Mastercard not following suit? Mastercard's human rights statement reads, "In recognition of how interconnected the world is and how we contribute to that interconnectivity, we expect our employees and partners of all kinds, from suppliers and customers to peer organizations, to share our commitment to respect and promote human rights. Since Mastercard requires its partners and peers to respect and promote human rights, why hasn't Mastercard ended its partnerships with terrorist abetting organizations? The company has a fiduciary duty to vet how the money it gives away is spent. Countless employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, directly participated in the October 7th terrorist attack in Israel. Far from just a few bad apples, there is widespread support for terrorism among UNRWA staff.
According to the reporting in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, well over 1,000 currently rostered UNRWA employees who very well may benefit from Mastercard partnership programs have direct association with terrorist groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Recent reporting on a previously undisclosed Telegram group found that in addition to the 1,000-plus active jihadists, hundreds more cheered the October 7th violence and committed to assisting in the event of future attacks. In bipartisan fashion, the United States government has suspended aid to UNRWA through at least March of 2025. The bill passed with the overwhelming bipartisan support of almost three quarters of both the House and Senate. Congress can't agree on anything these days. However, supermajorities agree with the idea that these troubling organizations should not receive taxpayer money.
On the agency level, UNRWA has decided to aid, abet, and incite terrorism, resulting in unprecedented violence and the promotion of hate. UNRWA employees and officials not only support Hamas, they work hand in hand with Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Does Mastercard want to be known for supporting a Hamas-cut-out organization? As I currently speak, families of the victims of the October seventh massacre are bringing forward a major case against some of these aforementioned NGOs in a Delaware federal court, hoping to hold them accountable for abetting these horrific crimes. Mastercard's human rights statement claims that they partner with others to create innovative approaches to prevent products, services, and technologies from being used in activities that may contribute to human rights abuses, including money laundering, terrorist financing, and evasion of sanctions. Unfortunately, these supposed guardrails have failed to function.
Mastercard owes it to its shareholders to make sure it is not indirectly facilitating funds to extremist organizations. Please vote in favor of proposal seven, our stockholder proposal requesting a human rights congruency report. Thank you.
Thank you to the National Center for Public Policy Research. Finally, a stockholder is presenting proposal eight, a proposal requesting a report on gender-based compensation and benefit gaps. Jerry Boyer of Boyer Research, on behalf of the proponent, has prerecorded a statement with respect to this proposal. We appreciate the proponent's interest in the company. Operator, could you please play Mr. Boyer's statement on behalf of the proponent?
I'm Jerry Boyer of Boyer Research. We are concerned that the company's high-profile announcement of an abortion subsidy without an equivalent adoption subsidy and the company's announcement of sexual transition benefits without an equivalent announcement of detransition benefits is risky. Discrimination based on pregnancy status is illegal, as is discrimination based on trans status. Furthermore, there is significant reputational risk when companies take sides on highly contentious social, political, and religious issues in a time of polarization. Mastercard certainly has put its brand on the line on behalf of a number of highly contentious positions, from bills which weaken religious freedom to voter ID laws, gun purchases, bathroom bills, and bills which seek to keep biological men out of women's sports and locker rooms.
The liberal Human Rights Campaign gives the company a score of 100%, whereas the conservative corporate bias report lists it as being high risk for cancel culture. The Viewpoint Diversity Index gives the company an abysmal 14% out of 100. When the left gives you an A-plus and the center right gives you an F-minus, it's pretty certain that you are taking sides. Furthermore, the board bias report shows that board members give to Democrats over Republicans at a ratio of over eight to one. This includes the CEO. Now, of course, board members are free to do what they wish politically in their own time and on their own dime, but the company's history of coming down on one side over and over again indicates that the management team is doing it with the shareholders' time and on the shareholders' dimes.
Or is it coincidence that the political and cultural stances of the company align with the personal views of the board and CEO? The onus is now on the company to show that it is unbiased. We have given them a chance to do so by asking some simple questions. For example, does the company offer the same sorts of subsidies for the adoption choice as it does for the abortion choice? The company's public disclosures are vague, mentioning a leave of absence, but nothing about reimbursement. Yet the company was quick to publicly announce reimbursement for abortion expenses after the Dobbs decision. The discussions with the company about detransition benefits were Kafkaesque. After much effort, General Counsel Adam Zitter eventually told us verbally that the company does indeed offer detransition benefits. When we asked him to confirm that in writing, he simply refused.
Trans interest groups tend to dismiss the reality of transition regret. It is a verboten topic, and apparently that suppression includes your disclosure to shareholders. The company should avoid speaking out on the cause of the month. It should give the same rights to its religious employees to affiliate together in resource groups, as it properly does to various race, gender, sexual orientation, and age-based employee groups. And of course, it should answer plainly the questions we have asked about its use of corporate money for abortion and sexual transition.
Thank you, Mr. Boyer. Thank you again to each of the proponents. For the reasons set forth in our proxy statement, the board recommends stockholders vote against proposals four, five, six, seven , and eight. Because we received no timely notice of any other nominations or business to be considered at this meeting, these eight agenda items are the only matters to be voted on today. All votes are now in the custody of the Inspector of Elections. Tim, could you please read out the preliminary vote result?
Thanks, Merit. Based on the inspector of elections preliminary vote report, we have a quorum for all matters to be voted upon, and each director nominee has been elected. Our executive compensation has been approved on an advisory basis. The ratification of the appointment of PwC for 2024 has been approved. The stockholder proposal requesting transparency and lobbying has not been approved. The stockholder proposal requesting a director election resignation bylaw has not been approved. The stockholder proposal requesting a congruency report on privacy and human rights has not been approved. The stockholder proposal requesting a human rights congruency report has not been approved. The stockholder proposal requesting a report on gender-based compensation and benefit gaps has not been approved.
The Inspector of Elections preliminary vote report that I have used will be certified following the meeting, and we will publicly report the final voting results on a Form 8-K. The Inspector's final report will also be filed with the meeting minutes.
Thank you, Tim, for reporting the results of the stockholder votes. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank all of the stockholders for their participation in the items presented for consideration this morning. We appreciate the interest and passion that our stockholders bring to our business. Each of the proposals submitted were closely considered and discussed before our proxy filing this spring. We have communicated the reasons for our recommendation in our proxy statement. This now concludes the formal business portion of the meeting, and the polls are now closed. I'm now going to turn to a business presentation from our CEO, Michael.
Thank you, Merit. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining this call, and a special thank you to you, our stockholders, for your engagement and support. Today's meeting is a chance for us to hear from our stockholders and answer your questions. But first, I'd like to share a brief update on the business, a look back at our 2023 results, and how that gave us momentum heading into 2024. You've likely already heard some of this on our quarterly earnings calls, annual reports, investor conferences, and other regular communications. So today, I want to emphasize three takeaways. Number one, our continued focus on the execution of the strategic priorities we have set to drive success and fuel our overall growth algorithm. Number two, our work toward these goals is delivering a solid return on your investment.
And third, we're seizing the opportunities that will continue to power the digital economy and Mastercard's future. Let's start with the growth algorithm. When I originally joined Mastercard, the business was largely focused on the consumer card payment. It was the beginning of the global shift to digital, and we were winning market share. Technology, along with the world around us, has helped to accelerate changes. Technology has changed the way we interact with each other. Emails, texts, and apps replaced calls and letters. And closer to our business, as people embraced electronic payments, our technology was used to help create new industries online: travel booking, booksellers, and retail, and of course, food delivery apps. It was only a few years ago that there was a big shift to a digital-first life virtually overnight. This rapid digitization is a clear benefit for our customers and our business.
Our customers gain products and tools that meet the needs of people and businesses: guaranteed payments, smarter decisions, and operational efficiencies. New choices in how to pay have been created. New experiences have been imagined, and new payment habits have been formed. Consistent expectations remain. People look for partners they can trust. Digitization drove the demand for strong security solutions using the latest technology. At the same time, digitization creates more data and more opportunities to understand the world around us and the end user's needs. That's more demand for leading data analytics and insight solutions we have built over the years. By taking advantage of and adapting to these tailwinds, we have evolved. While the focus remains on expanding market share and driving the significant secular tailwind and core consumer and commercial payments, our business is now more diverse.
We offer a strong and growing set of value-added services for our customers. We are leaning into new technologies and advancements to grow acceptance and continue driving the shift to digital around the world. In my annual letter a few months ago, I detailed the elements that make up our growth algorithm. Our growth algorithm is about capturing the natural growth of economies around the world and finding new ways to further penetrate the addressable payments market. For example, we are focused on improving commercial payments and capturing new payment flows. We are providing choices to people and businesses how to pay and get paid. Our efforts are also focused on growing in services and new networks. We don't just want to be in a transaction flow. We are helping our customers optimize their business portfolio and their operations. How do we do that?
Last year, we switched 143 billion transactions through our network. Every second, more transactions are added to that count. It's our job to drive that growth. Part of that comes from improving authorization rates. We're also helping businesses and governments make better, smarter decisions based on data, trends, and insights. We're using data-driven insights to strengthen our security solutions and protect customers and the end users from fraud and cyber risk. Our Safety Net solution alone prevented more than $20 billion in fraud last year. Add to that additional protections against scams and compromised cards. All of this comes together. Payments fuel services. Services power payments. They both spark new opportunities for payments, incremental payment flows, new demands for services, and help us grow new networks in adjacent spaces.
These adjacent areas, open banking and digital identity, for example, allow us to apply our strength in areas with similar network characteristics. These focus areas and more are delivering real solutions to address real needs. That is our growth algorithm and the flywheel we so often reference. And we're focused on making this flywheel spin faster. That's what led to some of the organizational changes announced recently. These are deliberate steps to better align our business structure behind our strategy so we can deliver on our opportunities at an even higher level. And that brings me to my second takeaway. We are delivering for you as holders of Mastercard stock. As Sachin and I have shared on our quarterly earnings calls, Mastercard continues to maintain our momentum and continually delivers strong results. This focus on execution comes as the macroeconomic picture remains mixed.
The positive here is that consumer spending remains healthy, supported by strong labor markets and solid wage growth. As we shared back in May, we are positive about the growth outlook. People are choosing Mastercard in their personal lives and as they run their businesses. That's because we offer an unmatched combination: the right products, the right technology, the right experiences, and the right services. We are delivering a positive impact and addressing real needs. We're providing our customers with meaningful solutions that they make available to the end user exactly when they are needed. I've been with the company for almost 15 years. The growth and the scale of the business is amazing if you think about it. In 2010, there were 1.6 billion Mastercard and Maestro cards. Today, it is more than double that.
In 2010, those cards could be used at nearly 32 million acceptance locations as compared to well over 100 million locations today. You think about a digital life, our token technology is delivering better experiences and more security. In the first quarter, tokenized transactions grew over 50% year-over-year. There's more room to go with approximately one in four transactions on the network being tokenized today. We speak a lot about the diversified nature of our business. One of the clearest examples is in our services activities. Services have grown from roughly one sixth of net revenues in 2012 to more than one third last year. Because Mastercard is consistently there for our customers, we are seen as a reliable and trusted partner. That is reflected in our growing volumes. That results in the positive growth on this slide.
Our five-year currency-neutral CAGR is 14% growth in revenue and 18% in adjusted EPS. That performance is both a result of and a contributor to our capital planning priorities. These remain unchanged, maintaining a strong balance sheet and investing in the business for the long term to drive top and bottom line growth. Another way to look at our results is through total stockholder return. Our TSR over the past five years has outperformed the S&P 500. Part of our performance and planning is realized in how we return excess cash to stockholders. Since our IPO, we have returned more than $74 billion to stockholders, with $11.2 billion returned in 2023 alone through a combination of buybacks and dividends. We're proud of our results and our track record in continually delivering for you, our stockholders, and our customers, partners, and employees.
That brings me to my third and possibly the most important takeaway. We have our eye on the future, and we believe it is bright. Let me share with you why the board, the management committee, and I are so excited about the opportunities ahead. First, we're innovating quickly and for impact. Today, we live in a world where the pace of innovation continually increases, and there is more to come. After all, we are in the middle of a once-in-a-generation technology shift. Let's look at how we're putting technology to work. You remember from our first quarter earnings, we are using artificial intelligence to deliver more value to our customers. For years, Decision Intelligence has helped protect banks against fraud by scoring and safely approving billions of transactions. Using the latest Generative AI technology, we have now accelerated the efforts and boosted fraud detection rates on average by 20%.
All of this happens because we have highly talented employees focused on doing what is right and earning the win. They're pushing the envelope and dreaming big. They are leaning into what can be possible so that we embrace the right technologies and the right partnerships at the right time. Second, we see enormous growth opportunity across all geographies. We have made big commitments that we are poised to deliver on. One example is growing financial inclusion. We recently announced the MADE Alliance to provide digital access to critical services to 100 million individuals and businesses in Africa over the next 10 years. It is a natural build on our commitment to bring one billion people into the financial mainstream by 2025. In Africa, we will continue to blend our global experience with locally relevant technologies.
We have strong partners who we are working with to establish a strong infrastructure: fintechs, telcos, and others that will help to ensure Africa's people and businesses and governments benefit from an economic engine today and into the future. Third, our brand has a clear meaning. It is a trust mark. The work we have put in place around Sonic and Haptics helped to reinforce that the brand they expect is the brand they experience and benefit from. Trust matters more and more when the interaction is only digital. We are driving new thinking to innovate and create new approaches to protect people's data and their money. We're strengthening partnerships across sectors to support this. That's priceless. We're doing everything we can to meet both future opportunities and future challenges. We're constantly thinking about the customer, the consumer, and their needs.
We're looking around the corner to what may lie ahead in order to ensure Mastercard is resilient in times where significant change is the new norm. It is about being deliberate in our actions, planning for tomorrow while delivering today. It's that focus on the customer experience and world-class technology that led IMD to place Mastercard at the top of its Future Readiness Indicator for 10 straight years. It's one of several recognitions we are proud of and appreciate. That appreciation extends to you, our stockholders. Thank you again for joining this call and for all your support. At Mastercard, we're excited about the opportunities ahead of us, and we're strengthened by the experiences we have together. Thank you. And with that, I turn the call over back to Merit.
Thank you, Michael.
At this time, we will now answer questions that have been submitted about the 8 proposals, as well as Michael's remarks. You may continue to submit questions during this session. Tim will read aloud the questions. Tim.
Thanks, Merit. We received a number of questions in advance of today's meeting. In order to answer as many as possible, we've organized them by topic and combined and summarized them where there's been a significant overlap. Because we're unlikely to have time to address all of the questions during the meeting today, we will post any questions and answers that we do not get to on our investor relations site in due course and consistent with the rules of conduct. So we'll go to the questions that we've received. The first, we have one, Merit, that's the following.
We received a question on the level of CEO compensation relative to the median employee, as well as how Mastercard is prioritizing investments in our business.
Thank you, Tim. I'd like to ask Richard Davis, who is the chair of our Human Resources and Compensation Committee, to address the first part of that question about CEO compensation and then invite Michael Miebach to address investment prioritization. Richard, over to you.
Thank you, Merit. CEO compensation is something that's very transparent. Every year, the approach to executive compensation and the named executive officers is included in the proxy for advisory approval by the stockholders. For 2023, the compensation ratio of CEO pay to median employee pay was estimated to be 183-to-1. Compensation to the median employee includes base pay, incentive compensation, long-term incentive awards, matching pension contributions, and the change in the pension value during 2023.
The primary objective of our compensation programs is to attract, motivate, and retain our executives to ensure successful execution of our business strategy. We review our executive compensation programs annually, and we believe our overall compensation structure and incentive plans are aligned with our business strategy and performance metrics that drive long-term shareholder value. F.W. Cook, the committee's independent consultant, annually evaluates the peer group compensation data, and the Human Resources and Compensation Committee then determines the appropriate market positioning for each of our executives relative to the peer group data as it sets annual compensation quantum. Thank you.
Thank you. Michael.
Thank you, Merit. To the second part of the question on investment prioritization, first, I want to reiterate our capital allocation priorities, which I mentioned earlier in my remarks.
We are focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet, investing for the long-term growth of our business, returning excess capital to you, our shareholders, and migrating our capital structure to a more normalized mix of debt and equity over time. Second, our investments are focused on advancing our strategic priorities, which I discussed earlier. They fuel our growth algorithm across payments and services and new networks. We aim to strike a balance with our investments across the short, medium, and long term. We do this with an eye towards driving top and bottom line growth over the long term. This includes expense discipline, which encompasses any incremental investment as well as prioritizing within our current expense space. As I laid out earlier in my remarks, we are focused on innovation. With that, in the core card space, in commercial payments, in our services, and beyond.
We're ensuring our products are fit for purpose in an increasingly digital world. We aim to drive continued growth for our business. Where can we scale? What is the best ROI for our investments? This all factors into how and where we put our dollars, where we invest, both organically and inorganically. And we are excited about the growth opportunities in front of us. Thanks, Merit.\
Thank you, Michael. Tim.
So we have a second question on management's rationale behind focusing on ESG and DEI initiatives. The question is specifically, is the company tracking and/or blocking customer purchases due to ESG initiatives? And why is the company focusing management on ESG versus creating shareholder value and growth?
Tim, why don't you answer this one?
Sure. So let me first address the question of whether the company is tracking and/or blocking customer purchases due to ESG initiatives.
The answer is no. We do not track or block purchases due to ESG initiatives. We employ a lawfulness standard as to whether or not transactions are permitted to run across our network. If you then step back to address the broader question, you may recall that we also discussed this in detail at last year's meeting in the Q&A session. I think what we'd say is quite simply, Mastercard is a global network that operates in more than 200 countries and territories. That network powers the choices people make and how and where they want to make and receive a payment. We grow at our core by bringing more people in more places together for commerce. It's about opening new markets for our business and creating long-term customers because our business thrives when these individuals and businesses themselves prosper.
That comes through the relevance of the innovation we develop, which Michael just talked about, and the different perspectives that inform the ideas we bring to life. For the company, ESG, doing well and doing good, that's really what it's all about. It's about empowering people, powering economies, and doing so in a way that connects people with the opportunities they seek. But it's also very much about growing new markets and customers for the future. Our employees are important too, which is why we remain committed to creating a global corporate environment where all people are treated equally and fairly and have equal access to opportunities and advancement. That helps bring great talent in and retain it here. It helps us deliver the results that Michael and the board expect and our shareholders expect. It's good business.
Thank you, Tim.
Do we have a third question?
We do. The third on the queue here is focused on Mastercard's policy on political contributions, specifically whether Mastercard contributes to members of Congress who voted to object to certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Tim, I invite you to take this as well.
Sure. So if I may, I'll start with the broader picture and then get a little bit more specific. Over the past several years, Mastercard has taken steps to ensure even more transparency in our disclosures about how the company engages in the political process. We direct shareholders to the corporate governance section of our investor relations website, where we've detailed the process and criteria for those activities. In the last year, we've made significant improvements to enhance transparency on that website. But let me then summarize things in response to the specific question.
You may be aware that Mastercard, like all companies in the U.S., is prohibited by federal law from using corporate funds to support candidates or political committees. That led to the creation of the Mastercard PAC, or Political Action Committee, where eligible employees can decide to participate and make voluntary donations. The PAC's board of directors, which is comprised of fellow employees, provides oversight of its activities and contributions. In 2021, the decision was made to suspend all PAC giving while this employee board reestablished the criteria that guides the PAC's political giving overall. Now, those criteria, as reestablished, do not contemplate making a political contribution by the PAC or not on the basis of a single issue, like a person's response to the 2020 election result, but rather on a basket of factors that are of high relevance to Mastercard and its business strategy.
And today, these decision criteria focus on six elements, including support for or expertise on issues of importance to Mastercard, and also representation of key states and districts where Mastercard has significant operations and interests. And in early 2022, the PAC resumed giving in accordance with these criteria. And if shareholders have a question on specific contributions, all those PAC expenditures are fully reported on the IR website. And Merit, that's the response to question three. I'm then looking in the queue, and I don't see any further live questions. And so, Merit, this concludes the question-and-answer session. So I'll turn it back to you.
Well, thank you very much, Tim. And as there are no other matters, this meeting is now adjourned. I want to thank you again to all who are listening for your support of Mastercard.
The meeting has now concluded.
Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.