MasterCard Worldwide (Nyse: MA) is a multinational corporation based in Purchase, New York, United States. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the banks of purchasers that use its "MasterCard" brand debit and credit cards to make purchases. MasterCard Worldwide has been a publicly traded company since 2006. Prior to its initial public offering, MasterCard Worldwide was a membership organization owned by the 25,000+ financial institutions that issue its card.
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MasterCard Worldwide (Nyse: MA) is a multinational corporation based in Purchase, New York, United States. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the banks of purchasers that use its "MasterCard" brand debit and credit cards to make purchases. MasterCard Worldwide has been a publicly traded company since 2006. Prior to its initial public offering, MasterCard Worldwide was a membership organization owned by the 25,000+ financial institutions that issue its card.
It was originally created in 1966 by 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) as a competitor to the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America, which is now the VISA credit card and issued by Visa Inc.
History
In 1979, "Master Charge: The Interbank Card" was renamed simply "MasterCard". In the early 1990s MasterCard bought the British Access 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.
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".
Features
Many issuing institutions include various features with credit card accounts, such as extended warranties on items bought with the card, damage waiver on cars rented with the card, and accident insurance during travel bought with the card.
Shareholders
Based on an SEC filing (DEF 14A) on April 24, 2008, MasterCard's largest current shareholders are:
(Class A Stock)
- 15.6% - The Mastercard Foundation
- 13.6% - Marsico Capital Management, LLC
- 8.9% - Atticus Capital, LP
- 5.1% - FMR Corp.
(Class M Stock)
- 9.5% - Citigroup, Inc.
- 8.5% - JP Morgan Chase & Co.
- 5.1% - HSBC Holdings, LLC
- 5.1% - Bank of America Corp.
IPO
The company, which had been organized as a cooperative of banks, had an initial public offering on May 25, 2006 at $39.00 USD. The stock is traded on the NYSE under the symbol MA.
Litigation
Both MasterCard and Visa have paid approximately $3 billion in damages resulting from a class-action lawsuit filed by Hagens Berman in January 1996. The litigation cites several retail giants as plaintiffs, including Wal-Mart, Sears Roebuck & Company, and Safeway.
