MasterCard Worldwide is a driving force at the heart of commerce, enabling global transactions and bringing insight into the payments process to make commerce faster, more secure and more valuable to everyone involved. As a critical link among financial institutions and millions of businesses, cardholders and merchants worldwide, MasterCard provides services in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard advances commerce worldwide by developing more secure, convenient and rewarding payment solutions, processing billions of payments seamlessly across the globe and building economic connections that accelerate business.

Behind MasterCard’s well-known payment card brands is a unique, three-tiered business model:

• Franchisor: Through the thousands of financial institutions that are MasterCard’s customers, the company markets a strong portfolio of brands and products worldwide, including MasterCard, Maestro®, Cirrus® and MasterCard® PayPass™. With these, MasterCard opens the door to commerce at an unsurpassed network of more than 25 million acceptance locations around the world and, in many cases, guarantees payment through its system. (It does not, however, issue cards, set annual fees, determine annual percentage rates on cards, or solicit merchants to accept cards. MasterCard’s customers, a myriad of financial institutions worldwide, manage the relationships with their cardholders and with merchants.)
• Processor: MasterCard’s streamlined and intelligent approach to processing enables efficient commerce on a global scale. It is based on an agile network, one of the largest VPNs in the world, which offers unparalleled speed, integration and reliability. MasterCard helps banks and merchants grow by enabling rapid adoption of new ways to pay and offering customized solutions that deliver value through technology.
• Advisor: MasterCard provides industry-leading insight and solutions that advance commerce by making the payment process faster, more seamless, more secure and more valuable
  to everyone involved. Using sophisticated processing and data-mining capabilities, for example, MasterCard tracks consumer behavior and buying trends around the globe and provides that insight to its customers. Through MasterCard Advisors, the largest and only global consultancy focused on the payments industry, the company provides strategic and operational solutions covering the payments process from end to end.

At the core of the company’s business strategy is a unique and laser-sharp focus on its customers. The company’s customer teams provide a single point of contact for activities across the globe and a truly unified partnership for mutual success that sets MasterCard apart from the competition. MasterCard is an advocate for its customers’ businesses, committed to driving value for their enterprises.

As it looks to the future, MasterCard is committed not only to continuing to deliver value to its customers and other stakeholders, but also to promoting the advantages of electronic payments, accelerating the displacement of cash and checks and advancing commerce across the globe.

As a global payments company, MasterCard’s role is to facilitate trans-actions among consumers who use our payment cards, those who accept them and the customer financial institutions that manage these relationships.

MasterCard continues to drive product innovation through our Global Product Group. Together with our customer institutions, we provide the infrastructure to ensure that these payments transactions are completed with a virtually 100 percent success rate. We establish standards and procedures for the acceptance and settlement of customer transactions on a global basis. We provide a global communications network for interchange – the electronic transfer of information and funds among our customers. We develop marketing programs that build even greater awareness for the brand, thereby increasing business for our customers; and we enhance and support the marketing activities and operational functions of our customers in connection with MasterCard programs and services.

The mission of the Global Product Group is to develop and sustain compelling product propositions for issuers, acquirers, merchants, consumers and corporations that capitalize on current market opportunities, leverage the company’s assets and create a competitive advantage for MasterCard. As a team, we work together to drive the development, go-to-market strategy, execution and management of product innovations that solidly place MasterCard at The Heart of Commerce.

Within the Global Product Group, there are five functional areas:

• The Global Commercial Products group provides card-based and virtual payment solutions along with the associated data intelligence to meet the needs of small businesses, corporations and public sector entities. The MasterCard Multinational Program, Corporate (T&E), Purchasing, Fleet Cards are developed and managed from this area.

• The Advanced Payments group is focused on providing the tools for anytime, anywhere, any-device access to payment accounts – now and in the future.

• The Bill Payment and Healthcare group is comprised of the MasterCard RPPS network, Card-based Bill Payment programs and the MasterCard Healthcare initiative.

  RPPS serves as the central connection for diverse senders and receivers of electronic bill payments in the United States. Card-based Bill Payment encompasses one-time and recurring payments using debit, credit and prepaid cards. Healthcare is a new, highly important and fast-growing payment sector.

• The Global Consumer Credit group provides MasterCard customers with a range of credit products, services and payment capabilities designed to drive cardholder usage and preference, and meet the needs of consumers in a range of high-priority segments (e.g., affluent, youth and emerging markets).

• The Debit and Prepaid group delivers products and solutions to replace cash and checks and to support the retail banking payments businesses for customer financial institutions. The team manages Debit MasterCard signature debit, Maestro PIN debit and the worldwide Cirrus ATM pro-gram. In addition, the team capitalizes on Prepaid payments opportunities in gift cards, travel, payroll, government and other stored value applications.

Key MasterCard Facts

1966 – Founded as the Interbank Card Association (ICA)
1969 – “Master Charge,” purchased by the California Bank Association
1979 – Renamed MasterCard to reflect a commitment to international growth
1985 – Acquired an interest in EuroCard (predecessor to Europay International)
1988 – Acquired the Cirrus® ATM Network
1991 – Launched Maestro®, the world’s first online point-of-sale debit network
1997 – Launched the “Priceless” advertising campaign
2001 – Launched MasterCard Advisors, the largest global consultancy focused on the payments industry
2002 – Merged with Europay International
2002 – Converted from a membership association to a private share corporation
2006 – Transitioned to a new corporate governance and ownership structure. MasterCard Inc. began trading on theNew York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MA
2006 – Introduced a new corporate name, MasterCard Worldwide, and adopted a new corporate signature and tagline, The Heart of Commerce™