Mastercard

As BankAmericard spread, a group of competing California banks joined forces in 1966 as the Interbank Card Association. The card was called Master Charge from 1969 and became MasterCard in 1979. Like Visa, the company issues no cards of its own. It runs the network, sets the rules and charges per transaction.

In 2002 it merged with Europay, the E in EMV, and in 2006 it went public. Maestro, the debit brand that sat on European bank cards for decades, began its phase-out in 2023 in favour of Debit Mastercard. Two generations of card numbers now coexist: the classic ones starting 51–55, and the 2-series added in 2017 when the old prefixes started running out.