Moat Index
Companies· Fintech & Commerce

MastercardMA

Moat score

The other half of the duopoly, one notch behind Visa on scale and brand, identical in structure.

MOATE3.9Deep
3.9 Deep
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DimensionMOATECommunity
Switching costsweight 15The same embedded rules and settlement relationships as Visa; issuers rarely move portfolios.8
Network effectsweight 15The same two-sided network, at somewhat smaller scale.10
Scale & cost advantageweight 12Global processing scale second only to Visa.8
Brand & pricing powerweight 12Universally accepted; slightly less default than Visa in most markets.7
Cornered resourceweight 12The network, the rulebook, and acceptance footprint.8
Distribution controlweight 12On most cards and every terminal that takes Visa.8
Disruption resilienceweight 12Shares Visa’s exposure to real-time and account-to-account rails.7
Independenceweight 10The same regulatory and antitrust exposure as Visa.5

Assessed . How the score works →

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How strong is Mastercard's moat?

Question 1 of 8

Switching costs

Switching costs · weight 15

How painful — in money, time, risk, retraining — is it for a customer to leave?

5