MasterCard has spent the past five years building a loyalty and rewards business in Europe and the United States. That business has not had much presence in the Asia-Pacific region but that will change, following the group's acquisition last month of an Australian loyalty and rewards company, Pinpoint.Mastercard's group head of loyalty solutions for Asia-Pacific, Chris Fendley, will oversee the integration of Pinpoint, working with the small MasterCard team currently providing loyalty services in the region.Fendley said: "The services we offer in the region at the moment are predominantly insurance and cardholder benefits, such as lounge access."Pinpoint has a significant business providing services to financial institutions in the region, and MasterCard has a range of loyalty services that it has developed in the US and Europe."What we will be doing is putting all those assets together, giving the business the resources it needs to build scale and work on growing throughout Asia."The business will have its regional headquarters in Australia. Pinpoint, which was founded in 1984, is based in Sydney.Fendley said there was demand for new services in the loyalty and rewards market. "Consumers want more instant rewards and they want personalised offers. We have the capability to deliver that," he said.MasterCard is involved in the development of rewards for debit payments in some of its markets. That is an emerging market in Australia, with only a handful of financial institutions offering debit rewards. Fendley said there were some debit reward developments in Europe that might work in the Australian market.The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.