Mastercard Inc

Mastercard Inc., known as MasterCard from 1979 until 2016 and as mastercard from 2016 to 2019, is a prominent American multinational corporation specializing in payment card services, based in Purchase, New York. The company provides a variety of payment transaction processing services and related offerings. Its primary function globally is to facilitate the processing of payments between merchant banks and the banks or credit unions that issue Mastercard-branded debit, credit, and prepaid cards for consumer purchases. Mastercard has been publicly traded since 2006.

The company was established through a collaboration of various banks and regional bankcard associations in response to Bank of America's BankAmericard, which later evolved into Visa, its main competitor today. Before its initial public offering, Mastercard Worldwide operated as a cooperative owned by over 25,000 financial institutions that issued its branded cards.