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Mastercard Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in the Mastercard International Global Headquarters in Purchase, New York. The Global Operations Headquarters is located in O'Fallon, Missouri, a municipality of St. Charles County, Missouri. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card-issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the "Mastercard" brand debit, credit and prepaid cards to make purchases. Mastercard Worldwide has been a publicly traded company since 2006. Prior to its initial public offering, Mastercard Worldwide was a cooperative owned by the more than 25,000 financial institutions that issue its branded cards.

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Mastercard Cirrus is a worldwide interbank network that provides cash to Mastercard cardholders. As a subsidiary of Mastercard Inc., connects all Mastercard credit, debit and prepaid cards, as well as ATM cards issued by various banks worldwide bearing the Mastercard / Maestro logo.

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Debit Mastercard is a brand of debit cards provided by Mastercard. They use the same systems as standard Mastercard credit cards but they do not use a line of credit to the customer, instead relying on funds that the customer has in their bank account.

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Mastercard Maestro is a brand of debit cards and prepaid cards owned by Mastercard that was introduced in 1991. Maestro debit cards are obtained from associate banks and are linked to the cardholder's savings account, current account or any of several other types of accounts, while prepaid cards do not require a bank account to operate. Maestro cards can be used at point of sale (POS) and ATMs. Payments are made by swiping cards through the payment terminal, insertion into a chip and PIN device or by a contactless reader. The payment is authorized by the card issuer to ensure that the cardholder has sufficient funds in their account to make the purchase. The cardholder then confirms the payment by either signing the sales receipt or entering their 4- to 6-digit PIN, except with contactless transactions below a specified amount for which no further verification is required.

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The Mastercard Foundation is an international non-governmental organization established by Mastercard in 2006.

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Mastercard Mondex is a smart card electronic cash system, implemented as a stored-value card owned by Mastercard.

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The payment card interchange fee and merchant discount antitrust litigation is a United States class-action lawsuit filed in 2005 by merchants and trade associations against Visa, Mastercard, and numerous financial institutions that issue payment cards. The suit was filed due to price fixing and other allegedly anti-competitive trade practices in the credit card industry. A proposed settlement received preliminary approval from the judge overseeing the case in November 2012 but the majority of named class plaintiffs have objected and many have vowed to opt out of the settlement.