Mastercard is one of the world's two largest payment network companies — alongside Visa — providing the global technology infrastructure, brand, and security framework through which banks and financial institutions issue credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards to consumers and businesses worldwide. Mastercard does not issue cards directly to consumers — instead, it partners with banks and financial institutions (called issuers) who issue Mastercard-branded cards and with merchants and acquiring banks who accept Mastercard payments. In India, Mastercard co-brands with virtually every major bank — HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Card, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank — offering cards across all tiers from basic Standard cards to premium Platinum, World, and World Elite variants with differentiated rewards, travel benefits, and lifestyle privileges. Following the RBI's April 2021 directive citing non-compliance with data localisation requirements (requiring payment data of Indian customers to be stored in India), Mastercard faced a temporary ban on issuing new cards to domestic customers — which was lifted in June 2022 after Mastercard demonstrated compliance. For Indian investors, Mastercard (listed on NYSE as MA) represents a high-quality global financial infrastructure company with significant India exposure — its Indian operations are growing as digital payments expand and card penetration increases among India's rising middle class and the formalisation of India's consumer economy accelerates through UPI, digital banking, and increasing merchant acceptance infrastructure.
For android only
