BID TerminalOpen complete report
Research library Payments & Fintech

Back of Napkin

Mastercard Incorporated MA

Three-pass checkedFresh as companies report

Mastercard now gives back 52.4% of its gross payment network revenue as rebates and incentives to the banks that issue its cards, up from about 50% a year ago.

Its book equity has fallen to $5.61B because it has bought back more stock than it has earned for years.

MA · price with moving averages

Daily · 6MWeekly · 3Y
$345$413$482$550$618 Sep '23Apr '24Nov '24Jun '25Jan '26Aug '26 BID
EMAs82140

Source: market data.

The business

Mastercard runs a network. When somebody taps a card, Mastercard authorises, clears and settles the transaction between the shopper's bank and the shop's bank, and takes a fraction of a percent for doing it. It carries no credit risk and lends nobody anything, which is the single most attractive feature of the business model: the volume grows with global commerce and inflation, and the losses belong to the banks.

The second business, value-added services, sells fraud detection, data analytics and consulting to the same banks and merchants. It is now $3.83B a quarter against $5.45B for the network itself, and it grows faster, which is slowly changing what this company is. A decade ago it was a toll road with a small consulting arm; it is becoming a data and security business with a toll road attached.

Inside the complete Back of Napkin

  1. 01The business
  2. 02The numbers
  3. 03Management
  4. 04How it fails or surprises you
  5. 05The shape of the payoff
  6. 06Closing thoughts
  7. 07Methodology

Continue with MA

Get the complete Back of Napkin free.

Choose this as your free complete report. No card required.

Read the complete report

More company research

View all research
Mastercard Incorporated MAMastercard's cross-border volume growth has fallen in five consecutive quarters, from 15% to 12%, and cross-border is the most profitable volume it carries. Moat Dive Visa Inc. VA shop in Lisbon takes a card issued by a bank in Ohio without either party having agreed to anything, checked anything, or trusting anyone. Moat Dive Visa Inc. VVisa's operating expenses grew 19% last quarter against revenue of 14%, and marketing alone grew 54%. Back of Napkin SoFi Technologies, Inc. SOFISoFi added 4.1 million members and $16.0B of deposits in a year, growing revenue 43%. Back of Napkin