Mastercard

On August 16, 1966, a group of American bankers outside the BankAmericard association formed the Interbank Card Association (ICA), the umbrella organization for Master Charge.⁠[1]

In 1967, 17 bankers met in Buffalo, New York, and ICA was formally chartered. In 1968, it began building a global network by partnering with Banco Nacional in Mexico and forming an alliance with Eurocard in Europe.⁠[2]

In 1979, ICA changed the name and trademark of Master Charge to MasterCard.⁠[1]

The company acquired the Cirrus ATM network in 1985, and in 1991 it launched Maestro, which it describes as the world’s first online point-of-sale debit network.⁠[2]

On July 1, 2002, MasterCard announced that it had converted into a private share corporation and merged with Europay International. Stock in the new holding company, MasterCard Incorporated, went to its principal members, and MasterCard International became its principal operating subsidiary. Europay became MasterCard’s Europe Region, based in Waterloo, Belgium.⁠[3]

In 2005, merchants sued VisaVisaVisa Inc. is one of the world’s leaders in digital payments, with roots going back to 1958, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.Open the full entry, Mastercard and banks over swipe fees, alleging antitrust violations. In June 2026, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan preliminarily approved a revised $38 billion settlement cutting swipe fees by 0.1 percentage point for five years and letting merchants choose which card categories to accept.⁠[4]

On May 24, 2006, MasterCard Incorporated priced its initial public offering of 61,520,912 Class A shares at $39.00 each, with trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MA to begin the next day. The company retained $650 million of the proceeds.⁠[5]

The offering raised $2.4 billion and was the largest domestic U.S. IPO of 2006.⁠[6]

The European Commission found in 2007 that MasterCard’s cross-border interchange fees were too high, and the General Court upheld the finding in 2012. In September 2014, the Court of Justice upheld that verdict, ending a seven-year legal battle. MasterCard had agreed to cap cross-border EU interchange fees at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit cards.⁠[7]

American Express filed an antitrust suit in November 2004. On June 25, 2008, it announced a settlement under which MasterCard agreed to pay up to $1.8 billion in up to 12 quarterly payments of $150 million from the third quarter of 2008 through the second quarter of 2011, subject to American Express performance targets.⁠[8]

In July 2008, MasterCard replaced ACE Ltd. in the S&P 500S&P 500The S&P 500 is a U.S. large-cap equity index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It includes 500 leading companies, covers about 80% of available market capitalization and is described by S&P DJI as “widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”Open the full entry, as ACE was changing its place of incorporation to Switzerland, making it ineligible for S&P’s U.S. indices. In the same month, MasterCard was set to replace General Motors in the S&P 100 effective after the close of trading on July 17, while GM remained in the S&P 500.⁠[9]

On April 12, 2010, MasterCard named Ajay Banga president and chief executive officer effective July 1, 2010, succeeding Robert W. Selander, CEO since March 1997. Banga joined MasterCard on August 31, 2009, after 13 years at Citigroup, most recently as chief executive officer of Citi Asia Pacific.⁠[10]

In April 2017, Mastercard won U.K. regulatory approval for its $920 million purchase of a 92.4% stake in VocaLink, and the deal subsequently closed. VocaLink’s technology powers immediate payments in markets including the U.K., Singapore and Thailand.⁠[11]

On February 25, 2020, Mastercard announced that chief product officer Michael Miebach would become president on March 1, 2020, and chief executive officer on January 1, 2021, when Ajay Banga would become executive chairman of the board. Miebach had spent 10 years at Mastercard. Banga said Miebach “has a proven track record of building products and running businesses globally.”⁠[12]

On November 19, 2020, Mastercard closed its acquisition of Finicity, a North American provider of real-time access to financial data and insights, extending its open banking efforts.⁠[13]

Founded in 2000, Finicity offers a platform that supports financial management, payments and credit decisioning.⁠[14]

On May 30, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission voted 3–0 to approve a final order requiring Mastercard to stop blocking merchants from using competing debit networks and to give those networks the account information they need to process debit payments. The FTC had alleged violations of the Durbin Amendment and Regulation II.⁠[15]

On December 20, 2024, Mastercard finalized its acquisition of Recorded Future, adding AI-driven threat intelligence capabilities. Johan Gerber, Mastercard’s executive vice president for Security Solutions, said the deal would help the company better support customers in securing transactions against evolving cyber threats.⁠[16]

Founded in 2009, Recorded Future provides threat intelligence to more than 1,900 businesses and government organizations in 75 countries.⁠[17]

In February 2025, the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal approved a £200 million settlement between Mastercard and former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks, who represented about 44 million people seeking compensation for excessive transaction fees. Litigation funder Innsworth Capital had challenged the settlement as premature and too low.⁠[18]

In 2025, Mastercard’s net revenue was $32.8 billion, up 16%, net income was $15.0 billion and diluted earnings per share were $16.52. Gross dollar volume reached $10.6 trillion, up 9% on a local currency basis, and cross-border volume rose 15% on a local currency basis.⁠[19]

Its network authorizes, clears and settles payment transactions, enabling payments in more than 150 currencies and more than 220 countries and territories. As of December 31, 2025, it employed about 39,800 people.⁠[20]