The Netherlands is a market with low credit card penetration where debit cards handle everyday payments, and Maestro was once the leading brand for those debit cards. However, since Mastercard stopped new issuance in Europe in July 2023, remaining cards are being phased out and replaced with Debit Mastercard as they expire. Online payments themselves are also dominated by iDEAL, which accounts for about 70%, leaving cards with a modest share overall.

Maestro should therefore be approached not as the center of a new payment strategy but as a complementary method that prevents payment failures for existing cardholders who have not yet been switched over. A realistic setup keeps iDEAL as the checkout default while accepting remaining Maestro cards alongside Debit Mastercard in the card payment option.

When a consumer with an existing Maestro card selects card payment, approval proceeds through 3DS2 authentication under PSD2's SCA (Strong Customer Authentication). The approved amount is received by Hecto Financial in euros (EUR), converted, and settled to Korean merchants in the contracted currency among USD, KRW, and JPY. Since the number of remaining cards is declining following the issuance stop, the scope of Debit Mastercard acceptance should also be confirmed at the time of integration.

In a card-acceptance setup through Hecto Financial, Maestro is not handled as a standalone product but as part of Mastercard-network acceptance. Whether contracting is possible on the basis of a Korean entity, and the fee terms, vary by industry and transaction volume, so confirmation before contracting is needed.

• Business registration country

  Confirm whether contracting is possible on the basis of a Korean business entity

• Sales channel

  The integration method and priority differ depending on your online sales channel mix — own storefront, online marketplace, mobile app, etc.

• Product categories handled

  Confirm in advance whether your products fall under a restricted category per the Maestro operator's merchant policy

• EU regulatory compliance

  Confirm compliance with EU payment regulations such as PSD2 and SEPA (see official sources below)

Amounts for transactions approved via Maestro are received by Hecto Financial in euros (EUR) and, after a conversion process, paid to Korean merchants in the currency set at the time of contracting among USD, KRW, and JPY. Because this is a card payment, a chargeback process exists, and refund and dispute-handling deadlines follow both Mastercard's rules and the contract terms.

• De Nederlandsche Bank (Dutch central bank)Official information on the Netherlands' payment systems and supervisory regulations. If the content of this page differs from the actual regulations, the official source takes precedence.