Master card credit
MasterCard Worldwide is an organization owned by over 25,000 financial institutions. These membership organizations issue Master cards. Master Card Credit Card has a logo with two spheres adjacent to each other embossed on the card.
It's easily recognized as it is displayed over billboards, advertisements over TV and the Internet The United California bank was the first to launch this card. Later Wells Fargo, Crocker National Bank, and the Bank of California also joined up to issue this card.
The origin of the Master Card Credit Card dates back nearly sixty years when during the late forties a number of American banks started issuing their customers special paper that was used by them to make purchases from grocery stores and shops. Within a span of 2 years by 1951, The Franklin National Bank in New York formally introduced a real credit card. This was the forerunner of the present day credit card from Master. There were
manifold developments during the next decade and franchises were given to many banks in a number of cities. Towards the end of 1966 saw the launch of the Interbank Card Association (ICA). This metamorphosed into the MasterCard International. ICA was a conglomerate of a group of banks and member committees, which were set up to run this organization. These committees laid down rules to run the organization. Marketing, security and legal aspects of the ICA were also enunciated. In another 2 years the ICA was ready for take off for a global expansion. The year 1968 was water shed in the development of the Master card and the first step to globalization was taken by forming a partnership with Blanco Nacional in Mexico.
Further developments followed. Euro card from Europe and the East Asian giant Japan also joined ICA. Membership soon spread to Asia and Africa and ICA even made deep in roads into the Iron curtain in Russia. The communist regime in China also accepted Master Card Credit Card. By mid eighties the ICA had become truly global phenomena and adopted the name master card. After nearly 6 decades since its inception master card presently has 37 offices world wide with the Global Headquarters in Purchase, N.Y. Purchase, New York which is part of the town of Harrison, in Westchester County.
The developments of the master card name took about 2 decades. Initially the name Master Charge was adopted. The California banks from the First National Bank of Louisville, Kentucky licensed it 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".
Further developments followed and in 1979, "Master Charge: The Interbank Card" was simply named " MasterCard". In 2002 master card also absorbed Euro card, which for many years had been issuing cards on its own.
In 2006, MasterCard International underwent another transformation and changed its name to MasterCard Worldwide. This was only technical change so as to keep pace with the times as it was felt that this word aptly described the global scale of operation better. The decades old logo also was changed and the company introduced a new corporate logo with an additional circle superimposed on the earlier two circles that had been used in the past. Presently the share holding of master card is spread over a large number of banks and institutions. However JP Morgan with 11.8%, Citigroup with 6.2%, Bank of America with 6% is among the larger shareholders.
On 25 may 2006 the company decided to go Public and launched its IPO. The IPO was priced at $ 39 and was fully subscribed.
Both Master Card Credit Card and Visa have however not been above board in their dealings. They were sued for unfair practices and paid approximately $3 billion in damages resulting from a class-action lawsuit filed by Hagens Berman leaders in protecting the rights of workers, consumers and the environment. The suit filed in January 1996 also implicated several retail giants as plaintiffs, including Wal-Mart, Sears Roebuck & Company, and Safeway
However despite this hiccup MasterCard has unleashed a catchy advertisement slogan that has captivated the imagination of the world. The slogan
"There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard" has become a standard part of Master card advertisement campaign
This catchy advertisement slogan was launched in 1996. It was created by McCann-Erickson the British advertisement company. This campaign positioned MasterCard in the forefront and the slogan appealed to the general public. The aim was to show that Master card could cater to the dreams of the populace.
Master card has also entered debit card market in a big way. Master Money is the brand name of the Master debit card available in North America. Like other debit cards, the card can be used as an ATM card as well as a credit card, provided sufficient funds are in your account.
A new contact less card called MasterCard Pay Pass conforming to ISO 14443 standard is launched. This provides cardholders with a simple way to pay by just tapping a payment card on a point-of-sale terminal reader rather than swiping or inserting a card. The procedure is thus greatly simplified.
In 2003, MasterCard concluded a nine-month Pay Pass market trial in Orlando, Florida, with Program Chase, Citibank, and MBNA. The market trial was a success.
In 2005, Master Card Credit Card began to roll out Pay Pass in certain markets. As of October 2006, 9 major banks and financial institutions have issued the MasterCard Pay Pass:
More important ones are Bank of America, HSBC, Morgan chase, City Bank among others. Master card is keeping abreast with the latest technology and, a global telecommunications network called Global Payment system linking all MasterCard card issuers and data processing centers into a single financial network is launched. The operational center is located in St. Louis, Miss. This is a state of art technology center and a flip to the master card program.
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