A card association or a bank card association is a network of
issuing banks and
acquiring banks that process
payment card
Payment cards are part of a payment system issued by financial institutions, such as a bank, to a customer that enables its owner (the cardholder) to access the funds in the customer's designated bank accounts, or through a credit account and ma ...
s of a specific brand.
Examples
Familiar payment card association brands include
China UnionPay
UnionPay (), also known as China UnionPay () or by its abbreviation, CUP or UPI internationally, is a Chinese state-owned financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card sche ...
,
RuPay,
American Express
American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...
,
Discover
Discover may refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''Discover'' (album), a Cactus Jack album
* ''Discover'' (magazine), an American science magazine
Businesses and brands
* DISCover, the ''Digital Interactive Systems Corporation''
* ...
,
Diners Club,
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Çan ...
and
JCB
JCB may refer to:
* JCB (company), a British manufacturer of heavy industrial and agricultural vehicles
* JCB Co., Ltd., originally Japan Credit Bureau, a credit card company based in Tokyo, Japan
* JCB Prize, a literary award sponsored by the c ...
.
While once card associations,
Visa and
Mastercard have both become publicly traded companies.
Statistics
Among
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
s alone, over 600 million payment cards are in circulation.
frontline: secret history of the credit card: watch online , PBS
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Card Association
Payment cards
Merchant services