| MasterCard Worldwide (NYSE: MA) is a trademark of an international payment system, combining 22,000 financial institutions in 210 countries worldwide. Company's headquarters is located in New York, USA.
MasterCard has around 26% share in the charge card worldwide, 57% has world leader VISA & American Express is at third with little over 13%.
Founded in 1966 as a result of an agreement between several U.S. banks for formation of an association under the name of "Interbank Card Association". In 1968, first international agreement was signed with Mexican bank Banko Nacional. In the same year, an agreement was signed with European Eurocard system, which laid foundation for the start of strategic partnership between MasterCard International & Europay International. Modern name of payment system was adopted in 1979. Participants of MasterCard International offer wide range of financial cards to individuals & legal entities.
Association MasterCard International is managed by its members. Non-profit (noncommercial) nonstock corporation "MasterCard International Incorporated" was founded in order to coordinate and run global business, to ensure promotion of payment system brands in the market, development and implementation of new technologies and standards.
Business interests of MasterCard International are divided into 5 regions:
Asia - Pacific region;
North American region;
European, Middle East and Africa regions;
Latin American region;
Caribbean region.
MasterCard International Corporation owns 51% assets of the company "Cirrus Systems Incorporated", 51% stake in "Mondex International" as well as 50% assets in "Maestro International" (joint venture with "Europay International S.A.")
Corporation MasterCard International Incorporated and members of MasterCard International are actively involved in developing and implementing technologies and standards of smart cards and also in promoting the cards as secure payment tool in e-commerce market. For these purposes, the payment system is involved in operations of several international consortia and forums, working on implementing standards of multifunctional smart cards. Presently, members of payment system started implementing the conversion of card portfolios on chip technology.
MasterCard is the main rival of VISA.
Proprietary brands:
MasterCard:
Main brand "MasterCard International" is basic in visual communication with members of payment system, customers, trading & service enterprises worldwide.
MasterCard Electronic:
Positioned, as "100% Electronic", "100% authorized issuer", card product is designed primarily for use in high-risk environment (unreliable customers from the perspective of issuer as well as unfavourable in terms of fraudulent trading outlets or integral countries or regions - from the point of view of card holder fall under this category).
Maestro:
Debit cards family for retail outlets, equipped with electronic terminals & ATMs. To improve the security of trade transactions, MasterCard strongly recommends that transactions on cards of this family are to be done with mandatory check of PIN code, but temporarily clearance of bills at point of sale is allowed with the signature of card holder.
Mondex:
Given product provides opportunity to pay through "e-money", for which it is possible to deposit cash in "e- wallet", functioning on the basis of chip, fitted in the card.
Cirrus:
Belonging to MasterCard International brand, which combines ATM network.
Types of issued bank cards:
Maestro:
Cheapest card from the family of popular cards. Transactions are not allowed on card without authorization & more recently, card can be used to pay for purchases on Internet using SecureCode. Maestro cards without owner's name on it (Maestro Prepaid) are also issued. Due to insufficient security for cards (hologram and UV-protection, strip for signature are not compulsory), progressive migration to more secure product "MasterCard Electronic" is taking place. However, Card Cirrus/Maestro remain to be more popular (compared to other MasterCard products) in Russia since majority of salaries are implemented on cheapest & serviced entry-level cards.
MasterCard Electronic:
MasterCard Unembossed:
Similar to Mass (Standard) card, data (number, owner, date) of which was imprinted but not embossed. Card cannot be used in imprinter. MC Electronic implies mandatory authorization from the issuer, whereas Floor Limit (offered to certain categories of retail outlets an opportunity to make a purchase without mandatory authorization of cards, usually for small amounts within the range of 20 - 50 U.S. dollars) & STIP (authorization on the side of acquirer on the basis of indirect payment attribute - used in case, when processing of issuer is temporarily unavailable) can be applied to MC Unembossed.
MasterCard Mass (Standard):
It is positioned as payment system, as a basic credit card payment system Europay / Mastercard with "standard" features; features of other products are compared with respect to Standard. Card is embossed (although, exceptions are in place) that allows you to do transactions using the imprinter, has magnetic stripe and / or chip to carry out operations in trading and service enterprises, equipped with electronic terminals & is also possible to make payment for card over telephone and Internet.
MasterCard Gold:
MC Gold offers additional services and opportunities for more demanding customers. As a rule, these are additional insurance, express replacement of card or emergency cash withdrawal in case if card is lost or stolen while traveling. Since 2009, MasterCard program is being promoted in Russia: Gold and above level cards are selective and directed towards card holders. Program envisages significant discounts fashion clothing salons & privileged (and in some cases - at free) invitation to cultural events. |
After MasterCard blocked WikiLeaks' account (that collected donations from fans), a loose-knit activist group called Anonymous, in what it calls "Operation Payback", launched a Denial of Service attack on MasterCard website and brought it down on one of the year's busiest shopping days. Mastercard's SecureCode payment system was also attacked and unavailable due to the same type of DOS attacks.
