Mastercard Inc 10-K10-K

Business

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Organization Mastercard Incorporated and its consolidated subsidiaries, including Mastercard International Incorporated (“Mastercard International” and together with Mastercard Incorporated, “Mastercard” or the “Company”), is a technology company in the global payments industry. Mastercard connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments, digital partners, businesses and other organizations worldwide by enabling electronic forms of payment and making those payment transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. The Company makes payments easier and more efficient by providing a wide range of payment solutions and services through its family of well-known and trusted brands, including Mastercard®, Maestro® and Cirrus®. The Company operates a multi-rail payments network that provides choice and flexibility for consumers, merchants and Mastercard customers. Through its unique and proprietary core global payments network, the Company switches (authorizes, clears and settles) payment transactions. The Company has additional payments capabilities that include automated clearing house (“ACH”) transactions (both batch and real-time account-based payments). Using these capabilities, the Company offers payment products and services and captures new payment flows. The Company’s value-added services include, among others, cyber and intelligence solutions designed to allow all parties to transact securely, easily and with confidence, as well as other services that provide proprietary insights, drawing on Mastercard’s principled and responsible use of secure consumer and merchant data. The Company’s investments in new networks, such as open banking solutions and digital identity capabilities, support and strengthen payments and services solutions. Each of the Company’s capabilities support and build upon each other and are fundamentally interdependent. For the core global payments network, Mastercard’s franchise model sets the standards and ground-rules that balance value and risk across all stakeholders and allows for interoperability among them. The Company employs a multi-layered approach to help protect the global payments ecosystem in which it operates. Mastercard is not a financial institution. The Company does not issue cards, extend credit, determine or receive revenue from interest rates or other fees