Mastercard Incorporated

Mastercard Incorporated is an American multinational payments company headquartered in Purchase, New York, founded in 1966 as Interbank, a card association formed by a group of California banks, and renamed Master Charge before adopting the Mastercard name in 1979. It operates one of the world's largest electronic payment card networks, processing transactions between merchants and the banks that issue Mastercard-branded cards to consumers, though like its main rival Visa it does not itself issue cards or extend credit directly to cardholders.