MasterCard, Inc. history, company profile (overview) and corporate video
Mastercard, Inc. is a financial services company headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States. Its products cover credit cards and payment systems.
MasterCard offers its services to individual consumers, small & medium businesses, governments & public sector, large enterprises, and banks & credit unions.
BRANDS
- Cirrus;
- Maestro;
- Mondex;
- MasterPass.
HISTORY
The original banks behind MasterCard were United California Bank (later First Interstate Bank and subsequently merged into Wells Fargo Bank), Wells Fargo, Crocker National Bank (also subsequently merged into Wells Fargo), and the Bank of California (subsequently merged into the Union Bank of California). Robert Leavelle, Senior Vice President of Farmer’s & Merchants Bank of Long Beach, California, along with his son Martin Leavelle, created the graphic image based on the two overlapping circles with the Master Charge title overlaid in the center of the logo. This was part of an effort by The Independent Banker’s Association.
Mastercard had its origins in the late 1940s when several U.S. banks gave their customers specially-issued paper that could be used like cash in local stores.
In 1966, the aforementioned group of California banks formed the Interbank Card Association (ICA). With the help of New York’s Marine Midland Bank, now HSBC Bank USA, these banks joined with the ICA to create “Master Charge: The Interbank Card”. The card was given a significant boost in 1969, when First National City Bank joined, merging its proprietary Everything Card with Master Charge.
In 1968, MasterCard International and Eurocard started a strategic alliance, which effectively allowed MasterCard access to the European market, and for Eurocard to be accepted on the MasterCard network. The Access card system from the United Kingdom joined the MasterCard/Eurocard alliance in 1972.
In 1979, “Master Charge: The Interbank Card” was renamed simply “MasterCard“. In the early 1990s MasterCard then bought the BritishAccess card and the Access name was dropped. In 2002, MasterCard International merged with Europay International SA, another large credit-card issuer association, which for many years issued cards under the name Eurocard (payment card).
In 2006, MasterCard International underwent another name change to MasterCard Worldwide. This was done in order to suggest a more global scale of operations. 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, remains unchanged). A new corporate tagline was introduced at the same time: “The Heart of Commerce”.
In 2006, MasterCard was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2010, MasterCard expanded its e-commerce offering with the acquisition of DataCash, a UK-based payment processing and fraud/risk management provider.
In 2012, MasterCard announced the expansion of its mobile contactless payments program, including markets across the Middle East.
In 2014, MasterCard acquired Australian leading rewards program manager company Pinpoint for an undisclosed amount.
With more than 24,000 employees, Mastercard Inc. is considered one of the largest payment-processing corporations in the world. According to Forbes, it is considered one of the Largest Public Companies in the World.
*Information from Forbes.com, Wikipedia.org, and www.mastercard.com.
**Video published on YouTube by “Mastercard News“