Mastercard Inc. (stylized as MasterCard from 1979 to 2016 and as mastercard from 2016 to 2019) is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York.[5] It offers a range of payment transaction processing and other related-payment services (such as travel-related payments and bookings). Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card-issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the Mastercard-brand debit, credit and prepaid cards to make purchases. Mastercard has been publicly traded since 2006.
Mastercard (originally Interbank, then Master Charge)[6] was created by an alliance of several banks and regional bankcard associations in response to the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America, which later became Visa and is still its biggest competitor. Along with Visa, Mastercard has faced numerous antitrust lawsuits. Prior to its initial public offering, Mastercard Worldwide was a cooperative owned by the more than 25,000 financial institutions that issue its branded cards.
History
Although BankAmericard's debut in September 1958 was a failure,[7] it began to turn a profit by May 1961.[8] Bank of America deliberately kept this information secret and allowed then-widespread negative impressions to linger in order to ward off competition.[9] This strategy was successful until 1966, when BankAmericard's profitability had become far too big to hide.[9] From 1960 to 1966, there were only 10 new credit cards introduced in the United States, but from 1966 to 1968, approximately 440 credit cards were introduced by banks large and small throughout the country.[9] These newcomers promptly banded together into regional bankcard associations.[10]
One reason why most banks chose to join forces was that at the time, 16 states limited the ability of banks to operate through branch locations, while 15 states entirely prohibited branch banking and required unit banking.[11] A unit bank can legally operate only at a single site and is thereby forced to remain very small.[11] By joining a regional bankcard association, a unit bank could quickly add a credit card to its lineup of financial products, and achieve economies of scale by outsourcing tedious back office tasks like card servicing to the association.[10] Such associations also enabled unit banks to aggregate their customer bases and merchant networks in order to make a credit card useful for both customers and merchants; early credit cards had failed because they could only be used within a small radius around their respective issuing banks.[11]
In 1966, Karl H. Hinke, an executive vice president at Marine Midland Bank, asked representatives of several other banks to meet him in Buffalo, New York.[12][13] Marine Midland had just launched its own regional bankcard in the Upstate New York market after Bank of America declined its request for a BankAmericard regional license because Marine Midland was too big.[14] The result of the Buffalo meeting was that several banks and regional bankcard associations soon agreed to join forces as Interbankard, Inc.,[12][13] which then became the Interbank Card Association (ICA).[10] By the end of 1967, ICA had 150 members and Hinke became ICA's chairman.[14]
The Interbank branding in 1966 initially consisted only of a small unobtrusive lowercase i inside a circle in the lower right-hand corner of the front of each Interbank card; the rest of the card design was the prerogative of each issuing bank.[15] This tiny logo proved to be entirely unsatisfactory for creating nationwide brand awareness in order to compete against the established leader, BankAmericard.[15] In 1969, Interbank developed a new national brand, "Master Charge: The Interbank Card" by combining the two overlapping yellow and orange circles of the Western States Bankcard Association with the "Master Charge" name coined by the First National Bank of Louisville, Kentucky.[15]
That same year, First National City Bank joined Interbank and merged its proprietary Everything Card program with Master Charge.
In 1968, the ICA and Eurocard started a strategic alliance, which effectively allowed the ICA access to the European market, and for Eurocard to be accepted on the ICA network. The Access card system from the United Kingdom joined the ICA/Eurocard alliance in 1972. In 1979, Master Charge: The Interbank Card was renamed MasterCard.[16] Beginning in 1980 the company rolled out new cards with a refreshed logo. Cards retained the overlapping red and yellow circles first adopted in 1969; subsequent card designs have continued to use this motif.[17]
In 1983, Mastercard International Inc. became the first bank to use holograms as part of its card security.[18] They acquired the Cirrus network of automated tellers in 1985.[19]
In 1997, Mastercard took over the Access card; the Access brand was then retired. In 2002, MasterCard International merged with Europay International, another large credit-card issuer association, of which Eurocard had become a part in 1992.[20] Mastercard became a Delaware corporation in connection with the merger, as well as in anticipation of an IPO.[21]
The company, which had been organized as a cooperative of banks, had an initial public offering on May 25, 2006, selling 95.5 million shares at $39 each.[22] The stock is traded on the NYSE under the symbol MA, with a market capitalization of $434 billion as of April 2024.[23] The deal was designed to maintain the value of the brand and minimise regulatory costs.[21]
In August 2010, Mastercard Worldwide, as it had been rebranded, expanded its e-commerce offering with the acquisition of DataCash, a UK-based payment processing and fraud/risk management provider.[24][25] In March 2012, Mastercard announced the expansion of its mobile contactless payments program, including markets across the Middle East.[26]
In spring 2014, Mastercard acquired Australia's leading rewards program manager company Pinpoint for an undisclosed amount.[27] In July 2016, Mastercard acquired 92.4% of VocaLink, a British company, for $920 million.[28] In August 2017, Mastercard acquired Brighterion, a company with a portfolio of intellectual property in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning.[29] Brighterion holds several patents.[30]
In 2017, Mastercard introduced a program using biometric cards where a fingerprint sensor is embedded with the payment card's secure chip, enabling cardholder authentication directly on the card.[31] By 2025, Mastercard had extended its program to cards used by Eastern Bank in Bangladesh and Jordan Kuwait Bank in the Middle East.[32][33]
In August 2019, Mastercard launched an offer to acquire part of the operations of Nets, a Scandinavian company, for €2.85 billion.[34]
In April 2021, Mastercard created a calculator that gathers information and measures the carbon footprints of the customers in order to help them know how much they are contributing in carbon emissions and global warming.[35] The same month, Mastercard announced the acquisition of Ekata, a company specializing in identity verification, for $850 million.[36]
In March 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mastercard announced that it would suspend all business operations in Russia.[37]
On November 17, 2023, the Chinese government approved the local bank card clearing license for the joint venture established by Mastercard in China.[38] As of May 9, 2024, the joint venture can issue Mastercard bank cards that use the Chinese yuan for payment.[39]
In September 2024, Mastercard acquired cybersecurity company Recorded Future for $2.65 billion.[40]
In January 2026, Mastercard launched an Agentic AI suite called the Mastercard Agent Suite to help banks, retailers and other enterprises build, test, and deploy autonomous AI-driven workflows and agents for business operations. It is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2026.[41]
In March 2026, Mastercard announced its biggest digital currencies deal through the $1.8 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK. BVNK was founded in 2021 and operates across 130 countries on all major blockchain networks.[42]
Finances
As of 2025, Mastercard ranked #152 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.[43]
Market power
Operating a payment processing network entails risk of engaging in anticompetitive practices due to the many parties involved (that is, the customer and their bank and the merchant and their bank).[21]
Few companies have faced more antitrust lawsuits both in the US and abroad.
United States
Mastercard, along with Visa, engaged in systematic parallel exclusion against American Express during the 1980s and 1990s. Mastercard used exclusivity clauses in its contracts and blacklists to prevent banks from doing business with American Express. Such exclusionary clauses and other written evidence were used by the United States Department of Justice in regulatory actions against Mastercard and Visa.[49] Discover has sued Mastercard for similar issues.[50]
Other issues
United States internet gambling transactions
Mastercard, Visa, and other credit cards have been used to fund accounts since online gambling began in the mid-1990s.[75]
On March 20, 2000, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, reviewed motions in Re: MasterCard International Inc. regarding multi-district litigation alleging Mastercard illegally interacted with a number of internet casinos. The plaintiffs alleged, among other claims, that Mastercard had violated the Federal Wire Act. They sought financial relief for losses suffered at online gambling sites outside the United States.[76]
The District Court's ruling on February 23, 2001, later upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, sided with Mastercard. The Fifth Circuit also clarified the application of the Wire Act to illegal online gambling. The Court determined that the wire act only applied to gambling activities related to a "sporting event or contest". Therefore, the court could not conclude that Mastercard had violated the Wire Act.[77]
Products
Depending on the geographical location, Mastercard issuers can issue cards in tiers, from the lowest to the highest:[120]
Credit cards:
Debit cards:
Through a partnership with an Internet company that specializes in personalized shopping, Mastercard introduced a Web shopping mall on April 16, 2010, that it said can pinpoint with considerable accuracy what its cardholders are likely to purchase.[121]
In September 2014 Mastercard worked with Apple to incorporate a new mobile wallet feature into Apple's new iPhone and Apple Watch models known as Apple Pay, enabling users to more readily use their Mastercard, and other credit cards.[122]
In May 2020, Mastercard announced the Mastercard Track Business Payment Service. The service will provide business-to-business payments between buyers and suppliers. According to the head of global commercial products, it "creates a directory of suppliers, enabling suppliers to publish their payment rules so they can better control how they receive payments while making it easier for buyers to find suppliers and understand their requirements".
Branding
Antitrust litigation over the years has damaged the brand.[21] Mastercard's current advertising campaign tagline is Priceless. It started in 1997. The slogan associated with the campaign is ''There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard.'' The Priceless campaign in more recent iterations has been applicable to both Mastercard's credit card and debit card products. They also use the Priceless description to promote products such as their priceless travel site, which features deals and offers for Mastercard holders,[135] and priceless cities, offers for people in specified locations.[136]
In mid-2006, MasterCard International changed its name to MasterCard Worldwide. This was to suggest a more global scale. In addition, the company introduced a new corporate logo adding a third circle to the two that had been used in the past (the familiar card logo, resembling a Venn diagram, remained unchanged). A new corporate tagline was introduced at the same time—The Heart of Commerce.[137]
Corporate affairs
Mastercard is a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MA. The company is headquartered at the Mastercard International Global Headquarters in Purchase, New York.[151]
It is a component of the S&P 500 and S&P 100.[152]
The company is governed by a board of directors, chaired by Merit Janow.[153] Michael Miebach is chief executive officer.[154]
World Beyond Cash
In 2017, CEO Ajay Banga reinforced the company's goal of extending financial services to those outside the current system by bringing digital payment systems to the unbanked around the world. The company invested $500M in India with offices in Pune and Vadodara to help Mastercard bring cashless transactions to the largest population in the world. The company also is scheduled to invest an additional $750M in cashless apps and technology, especially focused on India between 2017 and 2020.[155]
Banknet
Mastercard operates Banknet, a global telecommunications network linking all Mastercard card issuers, acquirers, and data processing centers into a single financial network. The operations hub is located in St. Louis, Missouri. Banknet uses the ISO 8583 protocol.
Mastercard's network differs significantly from Visa's. Visa's is a star-based system where all endpoints terminate at one of several main data centers, where all transactions are processed centrally. Mastercard's network is an edge-based, peer-to-peer network where transactions travel a meshed network directly to other endpoints, without the need to travel to a single point. This allows Mastercard's network to be much more resilient, in that a single failure cannot isolate a large number of endpoints.[156]
See also
- Access
- Cirrus
- Damage waiver
- Entrust Bankcard
- Maestro
- 3-D Secure
- Mondex
- Octopus card
- Payoneer
- Redecard
External links
References
- Earnings Release Mastercard, January 29, 2026, retrieved February 3, 2026^
- Profil société de MASTERCARD INC A abcbourse.com^
- Mastercard Incorporated 2024 Annual Report (Form 10-K) sec.gov, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, February 12, 2025