Mastercard
Mastercard Inc. is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York. It offers a range of payment transaction processing and other related-payment services. 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.
Some of the key events about Mastercard
- 1966Interbank Card Association (later Mastercard) was founded to create a national credit card network
- 1968Launched its first credit card outside the United States
- 1979Introduced the first electronic payment system for authorizing credit card transactions
- 1983Introduced laser holograms on cards to enhance security and prevent counterfeiting
- 1985Faced antitrust lawsuit from Visa for exclusivity agreements with banks
- 1996Criticized for high interchange fees charged to merchants
- 1997Launched Mastercard PayPass, an early contactless payment technology
- 2002Completed initial public offering (IPO) and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange
- 2002Lost a major antitrust lawsuit regarding debit card practices
- 2006Introduced the "Priceless" advertising campaign, which became globally recognized
- 2006Sued by American Express for anticompetitive practices
- 2010Acquired DataCash, expanding its e-commerce payment gateway capabilities
- 2010Blocked donations to WikiLeaks, leading to accusations of censorship
- 2012Agreed to pay $72 million to settle a lawsuit over foreign transaction fees
- 2013Faced criticism for data breach affecting 40 million card accounts
- 2016Acquired VocaLink, enhancing its ability to process bank-to-bank transactions
- 2016Fined $57 million by UK regulators for anti-competitive behavior
- 2018Fined €570 million by the European Commission for artificially raising payment processing fees
- 2019Accused of overcharging 46 million UK consumers in a £14 billion class action lawsuit
- 2020Committed $250 million to support small businesses globally during the COVID-19 pandemic
Disclaimer: This material is written based on information taken from open sources, including Wikipedia, news media, podcasts, and other public sources.