Mastercard International Incorporated

Mastercard Incorporated is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in the Mastercard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, New York, United States, in Westchester County. 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 and credit cards to make purchases. Mastercard Worldwide has been a publicly traded company since 2006.

Mastercard, originally known as Interbank/Master Charge, was created by several California banks as a competitor to the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America, which later became the Visa credit card issued by Visa Inc. 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 teamed with Apple, to incorporate a new mobile wallet feature into Apple’s new iPhone models, enabling users to more readily use their Mastercard, and other credit cards.