what is mastercard 
mastercard is the second largest payments network ranked behind visa in the global payments industry other major payments networks include american express and discover mastercard partners with member financial institutions all over the world to offer mastercard branded network payment cards mastercard uses its proprietary global payments network which it refers to as its core network to facilitate payment transactions which usually involve the mastercard account holder and a merchant along with their respective financial institutions payments can be made via credit debit or prepaid cards 1mastercard explainedmastercard itself is a financial services business that primarily generates revenue from gross dollar volume fees mastercard cards are issued by member banks with the mastercard logo and are characterized as open loop this means that the card can be used anywhere that the mastercard brand is accepted across the payments industry there are four major payment card processors mastercard visa american express and discover each company operates a payments network and partners with a variety of institutions for card offerings all electronic payment cards have cardholder numbers that begin with an issuer identification number iin that distinguishes the network processor for electronic payments the iin can help to identify the card brand if a logo is not visible the mastercard businessin 2020 mastercard reported 6 3 trillion worth of gross dollar volume which shows the amount of money comprehensively transacted on all of its card offerings 1 the company partners with a variety of institutions to offer several types of cards comprehensively its card offerings include credit debit and prepaid cards the majority of mastercard s business is through partnerships with financial institutions and their organizational co brand partners to offer open loop credit card options mastercard does not have a banking division as discussed in its 2020 form 10 k filing mastercard partners with member financial institutions that in turn issue mastercard branded cards to consumers students and small businesses member financial institutions often partner with organizations in co branded relationships to issue mastercard branded rewards cards to their customer bases these organizations can include airlines hotels and retailers 