VIDEO CASE 7
MASTERCARD: GOING UPSCALE

Check, cash, or credit card? How many times have you heard that question and replied “credit card” without even thinking about it? When you do think about it, however, credit cards are a relatively new phenomenon. Yet when it comes time to pay, it seems we’re more likely to use the credit card (and to have several of them) than checks or cash. Indeed, some writers have even suggested that, in the not so distant future, we will all operate with “plastic money” all the time.
MasterCard had its beginnings in 1966, when a group of banks joined together to form the Interbank Card Association (ICA). The ICA was founded by an association of banks rather than by a single dominant bank. Member committees ran the association by establishing rules for authorization, clearing, and settlement as well as marketing, security, and legal matters. In 1968, ICA went “global” by forming an association with Banco Nacional in Mexico and later with Eurocard in Europe. Since then, MasterCard has expanded around the world—even into the communist world of the 1980s when it entered the People’s Republic of China in 1987 and Russia in 1988. By 1993, China was the second largest country in terms of MasterCard sales volume. Today, MasterCard is affiliated with more than 23,000 financial institutions around the world and has nearly 370 million credit and debit cards in use . These cards are accepted at more than 13 million locations worldwide. Gross dollar volume in 1995 was almost $500 billion. At present, MasterCard offers several global products, including Maestro (the world’s first truly online debit program) and Cirrus (the world’s largest ATM network). Wherever you are, you can use your MasterCard to pay for goods and services, obtain cash, or debit your checking account directly. MasterCard faces fierce competition from