MasterCard New Services

In 1988 Hogg engineered the purchase of Cirrus, the world’s largest automated teller machine (ATM) network. ATMs—electronic machines in public places that enable users to conduct cash withdrawals and other banking transactions—had gained widespread popularity during the 1980s.


By 1990 the Cirrus system was linked with MasterCard’s existing ATM system to form the MasterCard/Cirrus ATM Network, with more than 50,000 locations worldwide. Within five years that network featured more than 200,000 ATMs.During the early 1990s a lackluster U.S. economy and fears about growing credit-card debt brought about a brief slowdown in the use of credit cards.


But by the mid-1990s a rejuvenated economy helped push card usage past all previous levels. MasterCard attracted consumers to its card by expanding the range of its services. The company signed agreements with companies to offer users airline rebates and other premiums; increased the use of debit cards; and encouraged a wider variety of businesses to accept the cards, including supermarkets and health care providers.


MasterCard and Visa continued to dominate the market during the mid-1990s. MasterCard’s sales increased from $450.5 million in 1992 to $946 million in 1996. Of the $798.3 billion in credit-card transactions in the United States in 1996, 27.6 percent used MasterCard and 49.2 percent used Visa.