How Visa and Mastercard Make Money: A Breakdown

Visa and Mastercard are not banks; they are payment networks that connect consumers, merchants, and financial institutions. Their business model revolves around facilitating electronic payments and charging fees for these services.

The Players Involved

To understand how these companies generate revenue, it’s essential to know the key players:

• Cardholder: The individual who owns the Visa or Mastercard.
• Merchant: The business that accepts these cards for payment.
• Issuer: The bank that issues the card to the cardholder.
• Acquirer: The bank that processes payments for the merchant.
• Payment Network: Visa or Mastercard.

The Payment Process and Fees

When a consumer uses a Visa or Mastercard to make a purchase, a complex series of transactions occurs behind the scenes.

1. Authorization: The merchant requests authorization from the cardholder’s bank through the payment network.
2. Clearing: Once the purchase is authorized, the transaction is cleared through the payment network.
3. Settlement: The funds are transferred from the cardholder’s bank to the merchant’s bank.

At each stage of this process, Visa and Mastercard generate revenue through fees:

• Interchange fees: These fees are charged by the issuer (the cardholder’s bank) to the acquirer (the merchant’s bank) for each transaction. They compensate the issuer for the risk of extending credit to the cardholder.
• Assessment fees: Visa and Mastercard charge both the issuer and the acquirer a percentage of each transaction as an assessment fee to cover their operating costs and generate profit.
• Other fees: These can include fees for value-added services, such as fraud prevention and data analytics.

For example, if you purchase a $100 item using your Visa card, the merchant typically pays a fee of around 2-3% to the acquirer. This fee covers the costs of processing the transaction, including the interchange fee and the acquirer’s profit. A portion of this fee goes to Visa as an assessment fee.

The Importance of Payment Networks

Visa and Mastercard play a crucial role in the modern economy. By providing a secure and efficient platform for electronic payments, they have facilitated the growth of e-commerce and reduced reliance on cash. Their revenue model, based on a small percentage of each transaction, has proven to be highly profitable.

While the companies themselves don’t lend money or hold deposits, they are essential intermediaries that connect consumers, merchants, and financial institutions, enabling seamless transactions worldwide.