What Mastercard is
Mastercard is a technology company in the global payments industry, headquartered in Purchase, New York, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its network routes each transaction to the card's issuer for approval, carries the details between the issuer and the merchant's acquirer once the payment is made, and settles it.
Mastercard does not issue cards or extend credit: the banks and licensed companies that are its customers do, and the relationship with each cardholder is theirs. Around the network it runs the Mastercard Digital Enablement Service, MDES, which turns cards into tokens for phones and wallets, and Mastercard Identity Check for EMV 3-D Secure. It is one of the two networks in our card issuing and card acquiring modules, next to Visa.
What it does in your platform
Card issuing
Your cards carry the Mastercard brand and run on its network, issued by your processor under your BIN sponsor's licence or your own principal membership. MDES puts them in phone wallets as tokens, and every authorisation Mastercard routes to your processor is answered by the module, from your ledger and your rules.
Card acquiring
Mastercard cards and wallets tapped on your merchants' phones go from your acquirer over Mastercard's network to the card's issuer, and are settled back to the merchant under Mastercard's rules.
How the connection works
The modules do not connect to Mastercard directly: your issuer processor and your acquirer do, and the modules connect to them. Here is one payment on a card you issue, from the wallet to a dispute.
The card goes digital
The customer adds your card to a phone wallet, and MDES creates a token for that device once your processor approves the request for you.
A payment abroad
In a shop in another country, the customer taps the phone, and the merchant's acquirer sends the payment into Mastercard's network.
Routed to your processor
Mastercard maps the token back to the card and routes the authorisation to your processor.
The module decides
It checks the amount against the ledger, the limits and your controls by country and merchant category, and the answer goes back the same way.
Clearing and settlement
Mastercard carries the clearing details between the acquirer and your processor and settles the money between them.
A dispute, if needed
If the customer disputes the payment, it opens in your backoffice, and your processor raises the chargeback with the acquirer under Mastercard's rules.
Next to other networks
Mastercard and Visa sit side by side in both modules. A card programme is issued on one network, chosen with your BIN sponsor and processor, and you can run a programme on each: the app, the controls and the ledger are the same for every card.
Merchants on your SoftPOS take both networks through their acquirer, in the same app and on the same settlement reports, so a customer's choice of card changes nothing for them.
When Mastercard fits best
A strong fit when
- Your BIN sponsor and processor offer Mastercard programmes in the markets you launch in.
- Your customers spend abroad and need a card accepted wherever Mastercard is.
- You want wallet payments from day one, with Mastercard tokens behind Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Also worth a look
- Visa, if your sponsor's or processor's offer for your programme is stronger on that network.
- Both networks, as separate programmes, for different markets or kinds of customer.
How we get you live
The partners
We help you choose and set up the BIN sponsor, the issuer processor and the acquirer that give you Mastercard access in your markets.
The programme
We prepare the card programme documents with you for your sponsor's and Mastercard's approvals, which set the timeline for your first cards.
Tokens and disputes
We enable MDES tokens through your processor for phone wallets, and connect its dispute handling to your backoffice.
A full test run
Cards, payments, refunds and disputes run end to end in your partners' test environments before the first live card or merchant.
