Ketchum has picked up the MasterCard USA PR/corporate communications programming in a competitive pitch that included incumbent Weber Shandwick.

WS, which is part of Interpublic, will continue its work overseas for the financial services giant that boasts of handling more than 23B transactions a year.

MasterCard's PR roster includes APCO Worldwide for issues management; Cohn & Wolfe, digital/social, and Taylor, consumer work.

Non-roster independents Edelman and Ruder Finn also were in he pitch mix for MasterCard.

Andrew Bowins heads MasterCard's worldwide communications effort. He told AdAge.com that Ketchum will "help build progam frameworks, shape strategy and develop conent and engagement models across channels."

Ketchum, whicn is an arm of Omnicom, worked for MasterCard's arch-rival, Visa, in the past.

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