Master Card International is a member-owned nonprofit corporation located at 888 7th Avenue, New York, New York 10106, U.S.A. It licenses financial institutions to issue Master Card bank cards and market related products and services.
It is found that master card is one of the major credit cards used by people in the United States. It has observed that Visa targets the elite class of people as its customer, whereas Master Card is mainly pointing toward the ordinary class of people.
If we look back we can see that in 1951, European American Bank(previously Franklin National Bank)issued the first modern credit card. These cards were popularly used among local businesspersons. Within very short period of time more than 100 banks or financial organization started issuing started issuing cards. Businesspersons were charged minimum fees by those banks for any transaction made on the card.
In 1958, the Bank of America, based in California started issuing BankAmericard (BankAmeriacard was later change to Visa) The licensee banks were authorized to enroll card members in their respective regions. The other function of the bank was to establish an agreement with the merchants to accept the card as payment for merchandise or services.
On August 16, 1966, these bankers formed the Interbank Card Association (ICA). Their duty was to organize, manage and direct the functions associated with credit card payment. ICA was the pioneer organization for Master Charge, whose name was later changed to Master Card.
A fair competition is always there between master card and visa.
In 1981, the company introduced Master Card Travelers Checks. In the same year Gold Master Card was introduced. And that was a marketing strategy.
In 1983, Master Card introduced Emergency Card Replacement program and started using a laser hologram on all its plastic cards. All these was done to protect users from duplicity. To compete with Visa it strengthened its electronic communications network.
In 1984, Banknet Master Card was launched
In 1986, a Master Card office was inaugurated in Hong Kong.
In 1987, for the first time credit card started its operation in the People's Republic of China. During these periods, the company opened a regional office in Latin America also.
In 1988, the largest automated teller machine (ATM) network in the world was established by this company.
Within 1991 to 1994, Master Card sponsored 269 matches and sponsored the 1994 World Cup and gained its popularity worldwide.