Card Schemes

There are several Card companies that operate within the industry with some well known companies and others not-so-well known.  Below is a brief overview of these companies which facilitates global commerce through their network amongst financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses and government entities.
 
 
Visa
 
Visa Inc. operates the world's largest retail electronic payments network and is one of the most recognized global financial services brands.
 
They connect cardholders, merchants and financial institutions around the world with products and services that can make payments faster, more convenient, more reliable and more secure.

Visa Inc.’s headquarters are in San Francisco. The company has five operating regions: Asia-Pacific; Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa; Latin America and Caribbean; and North America. Visa Europe is a separate entity that is an exclusive licensee of Visa Inc.’s trademarks and technology in the European region.

Importantly, Visa does not issue cards, set cardholder fees or interest rates, or make loans to cardholders. The cardholder relationships belong to our network of financial institution clients and are managed by them.
 
Visa Europe is a membership association of 4,600 European banks that have collectively issued over 348 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards in Europe. In the year ending September 2007, those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of over €1.3 trillion.
 
For more information please visit http://www.visaeurope.com/corporate.jsp
 
MasterCard

MasterCard has worldwide transaction processing, network infrastructure and data processing services in 210 countries.

As a link among financial institutions and millions of businesses, cardholders and merchants worldwide, the MasterCard network processed more than 21 billion transactions in 2008

Their network connects 210 countries and more than 25,000 financial institutions processing 5.4 million transactions per hour, and processes its portion of each transaction in an average of 129 milliseconds

For more information please visit: http://www.mastercard.com/uk/gateway.html
 
Maestro
 
Maestro is MasterCard International's lead debit brand and offers over 540 million cardholders highly secure and convenient access to their current and deposit accounts in over 100 countries across the world.
 
For more information please visit: http://www.maestrocard.com/uk/
 
American Express

American Express operates one of the world's largest travel agency networks with locations in over 140 countries worldwide. The Company processed $25.4 billion in global travel sales in 2008.

For more information please visit: https://www.americanexpress.com

JCB

Since being established in 1961, JCB has led the Japanese card industry offering creative new products and services as the pioneer in credit card payment solutions.

JCB cards are accepted at over 13 million associated merchants in 190 countries/territories, and supported by close ties with more than 350 financial institutions around the world. Their success as a major global payment brand is due to their steadfast commitment to quality services and products meeting every need of our valued customers.

JCB cards are now issued in 20 countries and territories, with a 57.7 million card member base and 62.7 billion US dollar in annual sales, making JCB the undisputed leader of Japan’s credit card market and one of the world’s major international card brands.

For more information please visit: http://www.jcbinternational.com


Diners

The Diners Club Card was the first ever Charge Card. In 1950, businessman Frank McNamara entertained a group of dinner guests in a New York restaurant, only to discover that he'd forgotten his wallet. Luckily, the restaurant owner knew him and let him leave his business card as an IOU. This inspired McNamara to devise a card to prove the holder's identity and ability to pay. He launched the Diners Club Card that year and the initial membership was 200 with the card being accepted in 27 restaurants. In 2008, there are 8 million Diners Club Cardholders in over 200 countries, and the card is accepted in 6 million establishments worldwide.

There are many reasons why Diners Club® Cards have become the Card of choice for more than 8 million people worldwide.

Welcomed in more than 200 countries by over 8 million establishments, the Card offers an exclusive range of benefits and privileges

For more information please visit: http://www.dinersclub.co.uk
 
Laser
 
Laser Card is an Irish owned debit card scheme and an electronic version of a cheque. There are nearly 3million Laser Cards in circulation and 180million transactions worth an €11.4billion were carried out on those cards in 2008.
 
It was set up in 1996 by leading financial institutions in the country and has experienced superb growth in the last eleven years.

Laser Cards enable customers to pay for goods and services in over 50,000 retail outlets in Ireland.

For more information please visit: http://www.lasercard.ie/