Mastercard Incorporated

Mastercard Incorporated is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in the Mastercard International Global Headquarters in Purchase, New York, United States.

The company’s Global Operations Headquarters is located in O’Fallon, Missouri, United States, a municipality of St. Charles County, Missouri.

Throughout the world, the company’s principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the “Mastercard” brand debit, credit and prepaid cards to make purchases.

Mastercard Worldwide has been a publicly traded company since 2006. Prior to its initial public offering, Mastercard Worldwide was a cooperative owned by more than 25 000 financial institutions that issued its branded cards.

The company has a history dating back to 1966, when it was established as an alliance of several regional bankcard associations in response to the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America, which later became the Visa credit card issued by Visa Inc.

In 1968, the ICA and Eurocard started a strategic alliance, which effectively allowed the ICA access to the European market, and for Eurocard to be accepted on the ICA network. The Access card system from the United Kingdom joined the ICA/Eurocard alliance in 1972.

In 1979, “Master Charge: The Interbank Card” was renamed “MasterCard”. In 1997, Mastercard took over the Access card; the Access brand was then retired.

In 2002, MasterCard International broadened its portfolio when it merged with Europay International, another large credit-card issuer association, of which Eurocard had become a part in 1992.

In mid-2006, MasterCard International changed its name to MasterCard Worldwide. This was to suggest a more global scale. In addition, the company introduced a new corporate logo adding a third circle to the two that had been used in the past (the familiar card logo, resembling a Venn diagram, remained unchanged). A new corporate tagline was introduced at the same time: “The Heart of Commerce”.

In August 2010, MasterCard expanded its e-commerce offering with the acquisition of DataCash, a UK-based payment processing and fraud/risk management provider, which was followed by the expansion of its mobile contactless payments program, including markets across the Middle East.

Mastercard teamed with Apple in September 2014, to incorporate a new mobile wallet feature into Apple’s new iPhone models, enabling users to more readily use their Mastercard, and other credit cards.

As of 2018, Mastercard ranked 236 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.

Mastercard is a growth company with a constant commitment and dedication to delivering value to consumers, businesses and shareholders.

Mastercard operates from hundreds of corporate offices worldwide. The company’s global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories.

Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for its consumers.

However, the company experienced a sharp decline in its share value in March 2025 after a major stock sell-off as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has resulted in a worldwide economic contraction as various countries attempt to halt the spread of the virus.

Mastercard stock declined by about 16% since Monday, March 9th (through March 12) and the stock is down by about 24% since February 1, after the WHO declared a global health emergency.

In comparison, American Express, which is a payment services giant, saw its stock fall by about 30% since early February and by about 23% since Monday (through March 12).

However, although Mastercard’s stock has declined due to the Coronavirus/Oil Price War crisis, going by trends seen during the 2008 economic slowdown, Mastercard stock will likely recover its lost value and potentially outperform as the crisis winds down.

Analysts predict that Mastercard stock could bounce back strongly and potentially outperform the S&P 500 index as the crisis diminishes, similar to the post 2008 crisis where it rose nearly 62% between March 2009 and January 2010, as compared to the 48% jump in the S&P index.

This is primarily due to the fact that latent consumer demand for the company’s financial services will likely resurge after markets open up, and spending patterns begin to broadly normalise.

Mastercard Incorporated trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) where investors can buy shares under the stock symbol – MA

Data from the company’s 2025 financial analysis of its fiscal first quarter results shows net income of $ 1.7 billion, or diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $ 1.68. Adjusted net income was $ 1.8 billion, or adjusted diluted EPS of $1.83, and net revenue was $ 4.0 billion, an increase of 3%, or 5% on a currency-neutral basis.

While cross border volume was down 1%, gross dollar volume was up 8%, and switched transactions were up a further 13%.

These increases resulted in a net revenue increase of 3%, or 5% on a currency-neutral basis.

This revenue increase was also driven by an increase in other revenues of 26%, or 28% on a currency-neutral basis. This includes a 6 percentage point increase due to acquisitions. The remaining growth was driven primarily by the company’s Cyber & Intelligence and Data & Services solutions.

During the first quarter of 2025, Mastercard repurchased approximately 4.7 million shares at a cost of $1.4 billion and paid $403 million in dividends.

Due to the continued uncertainty around the duration and severity related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mastercard has temporarily suspended 2025 share repurchase activity, and will re-evaluate this as macroeconomic visibility improves. The company has $ 6.9 billion remaining under current repurchase program authorizations.

All in all, the company has largely delivered a stable performance despite initial losses in share value in March 2025, and analysts that the expected resurgence in consumer spending after the coronavirus crisis subsides will result in solid dividends and a rising share price for investors who choose to purchase shares today, securing a strong buy-in in 2025 and in the future.

This places Mastercard in a strong position to continue to deliver growth for all of its stakeholders despite the effects of the crisis, particularly since as of March 31, 2025, the company’s customers had issued 2.6 billion Mastercard and Maestro-branded cards, a telling sign of future growth.

Financials

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  Yes, while Mastercard Incorporated took a knock to its share value in March, due to the economic contraction as a result of the coronavirus pandemic which resulted in losses of cross-border transactions, the company’s dollar volume increased. This is broadly in line with analyst’s predictions that Mastercard shares will bounce back strongly once the crisis winds down and latent consumer spending trends resume.

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