MasterCard International Incorporated

Credit card and payment system company based in Purchase, New York, near New York City. As of 2001, MasterCard had more than 1.7 billion credit, charge, and debit cards in circulation.


MasterCard is collectively owned by more than 20,000 member financial institutions around the world. Each of these institutions issues its own localized version of the MasterCard, and each establishes the terms—such as fees and interest rates—that it offers to cardholders.