MasterCard
MasterCard Worldwide is a
membership organization owned by the 25,000+
financial institutions that issue its card.
MasterCard is also the company's
brand of
credit cards. It was originally created by
United California Bank,
Wells Fargo,
Crocker Bank, and the
Bank of California as a competitor to the
BankAmericard issued by
Bank of America. BankAmericard is now the
VISA credit card, issued by
Visa International.
The name
Master Charge was
licensed by the above mentioned
California banks from the
First National Bank of Louisville, Kentucky in
1967. With the help of
New York's
Marine Midland Bank, now
HSBC Bank USA, these banks joined with the
Interbank Card Association (ICA) to create "Master Charge: The Interbank Card".
In
1979, "Master Charge: The Interbank Card" was renamed to simply "
MasterCard". In
2002, MasterCard Worldwide absorbed
Europay International SA, another large credit-card issuer association.
In
2006, MasterCard International underwent another name change to MasterCard Worldwide. This was done in order to suggest a more global scale of their operations. In addition, the company introduced a new corporate logo made up of an additional circle to the traditional two that had been used in the past. A new corporate tagline was introduced at the same time. The tagline is "The Heart of Commerce".
[MasterCard changing name, Jay Loomis, The Journal News, June 28, 2006]Based on an
SEC filing in early
2005, MasterCard's largest current
shareholders are:
#11.8% -
JPMorgan Chase# 6.2% -
Citigroup# 6.0% -
Bank of America# 5.2% -
Euro Kartensysteme# 5.0% -
Europay FranceThe
company, which had been organized as a cooperative of banks, offered an inital public offering
IPO on May 25th 2006 and trades on the
NYSE under the symbol MA.
Both MasterCard and Visa have paid approximately $3 billion in damages resulting from a
class-action lawsuit filed by
Hagens Berman in January,
1996.
[Visa/MasterCard Litigation, January 1st 1996] The
litigation cites several
retail giants as
plaintiffs, including
Wal-Mart,
Sears Roebuck & Company, and
Safeway.
[VISA CHECK/MASTERMONEY ANTITRUST LITIGATION WEBSITE] |
The "old" MasterCard logo; remains in use (for the moment) as a consumer logo |
MasterCard's current advertising campaign follow this pattern:
This series of ads started in 1998 and there are numerous different ads.
[Pricess Film Festival] It was created by
McCann-Erickson. MasterCard actually registered
Priceless as a trademark.
[Priceless, Trademark Electronic Search System, Retreieved July 5th 2006] Actor
Billy Crudup has been the voice of the ads since 1997.
This campaign attempts to position MasterCard as the credit card company with a sense of humor. They are designed to respond to the public's worry that everything is being commodified, and that people are becoming too materialistic.
[Priceless, Jim Farrell, New American Dream, Retreieved July 5th 2006]Many parodies have been made using this same pattern,
[Examples of "Priceless" parodies: {{cite web|url=http://youtube.com/results?search=priceless+parody&search_type=search_videos |title=YouTube Video Search |accessdate= | accessmonthday=July 30 |accessyear=2006 |author=Various Sources |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate=]though MasterCard has threatened legal action,
[Threats of legal action: {{cite web|url=http://www.chillingeffects.org/trademark/notice.cgi?NoticeID=17 |title=Re: MasterCard/Infringement by NETFUNNY.COM web site |accessdate= |accessmonthday=July 30 |accessyear=2006 |author=MasterCard International |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=April 9, 2001 |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate=]contending that MasterCard views such parodies as a violation of its rights under the federal and state trademark and unfair competition laws, under the federal and state anti-dilution laws, and under the Copyright Act. Despite these claims, however, noted US consumer advocate Ralph Nader emerged victorious (after a four-year battle) in the suit MasterCard brought against him after he produced his own "Priceless" political commercials.
[{{cite web|url=http://lawgeek.typepad.com/lawgeek/LegalDocs/nader_decision.pdf |title=Decision of the US District Court in the case of MasterCard International Incorporated v. Ralph Nader |accessdate= | accessmonthday=July 30 |accessyear=2006 |author=George B. Daniels, District Judge |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=March 9, 2004 |year= |month= |format=PDF |work= |publisher=US District Court, Southern District of New York |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate=]As of December
2004, the following banks are represented on MasterCard's
board of directors:
#Europay España, S.A.#
HSBC#Clarima Banca#
Capital One#Banamex (
Citigroup's Mexican division)#
Citigroup#
The Royal Bank Of Scotland #
MBNA America (now Bank of America)#
Westpac Banking Corporation#Southern Bank Berhad#
Bank of Montreal#Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel#Deutscher Sparkassen-und Giroverband#Orient Corporation
In January, 2005,
Washington Mutual Bank, the third largest issuer of
debit cards in the United States, announced that it was changing its debit-card branding from
VISA to MasterCard. The change will make Washington Mutual MasterCard's largest bank customer.
MasterMoney is the branding of a MasterCard
debit card distributed in
North America. Like many debit cards, the brand has capabilities of being used as an
ATM card as well as a
credit card, providing sufficient funds are in one's
bank account (usually a
checking account) in order to complete a transaction.
MasterCard PayPass is a new "contactless" payment feature based on the
ISO 14443 standard that provides cardholders with a simpler way to pay by tapping a payment card or other payment device, such as a phone or key fob, on a point-of-sale terminal reader rather than swiping or inserting a card.
In
2003, MasterCard concluded a nine-month PayPass market trial in
Orlando, Florida, with
JPMorgan Chase,
Citibank, and
MBNA. More than 16,000 cardholders and more than 60 retailer locations participated in the market trial. In addition, MasterCard worked with
Nokia,
AT&T Wireless, and
JPMorgan Chase to incorporate MasterCard PayPass into mobile phones in
Dallas, Texas.
In 2005, MasterCard began to roll out PayPass in certain markets. As of April 2006, the following financial institutions have issued the MasterCard PayPass:
#
Bank of America #
JPMorgan Chase (available through its "
blink" contactless feature)#
Citibank (both MasterCard credit and debit cards)#
HSBC Bank USA (debit card only)#
Key Bank (debit card only)#
Citizens Bank and Charter One Bank (both MasterCard credit and debit cards)#
Commonwealth Bank (Australia)
*
VISA*
American Express*
Diners Club*
Discover*
Maestro*
Octopus card*
China UnionPay*
JCB*
Official website*
Corporate website*
Merchant website*
Business website*
PayPass website*
Yahoo! - MasterCard Incorporated Company Profile* "
MasterCard fingers partner in 40m card security breach" at
The Register,
18 June 2005*
The Lessons of Mastercard*
Comparison of credit cards from MasterCard
