Company profile
SEC EDGAR ↗- Industry
- Services-Business Services, NEC
- Listed
- NYSE: MA
- Incorporated
- DE
- Headquarters
- Purchase, NY
- Fiscal year end
- Dec 31
Financials
FY2025- Revenue
- $32.8B
- Net income
- $15.0B
- Total assets
- $54.2B
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Total assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $32.8B | $15.0B | $54.2B |
| FY2024 | $28.2B | $12.9B | $48.1B |
| FY2023 | $25.1B | $11.2B | $42.4B |
| FY2022 | $22.2B | $9.93B | $38.7B |
| FY2021 | $29.8B | $8.69B | $37.7B |
| FY2020 | $23.6B | $6.41B | $33.6B |
Reported fiscal years from SEC filings (10-K) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.
The analyses
The Money Machine · Business Model
Mastercard Sets the Interchange Fee and Keeps None of It. That's Not a Bug — It's the Whole Game.
Everyone thinks Mastercard collects a slice of every swipe. It doesn't — it sets interchange rates it never receives. The real money is thin scheme fees on $9.8 trillion of volume, plus a value-added services arm now at 38% of net revenue and growing faster than the network itself.
8 min
The Flywheel · Business Model
Mastercard's Flywheel Spins on Data It Doesn't Pay For - and a Lawsuit It Can't Settle.
Mastercard switched 159.4 billion transactions in 2024 at a 12% revenue gain, all without lending a dollar. The flywheel is real and self-reinforcing - but a 20-year antitrust war, a $5.54B settlement, and a proposed $30B follow-on show its underside is anything but invincible.
8 min
The Moat Anatomy · Moat & Competition
Mastercard Paid $5.54 Billion for Its Rules — and Moved the Game to Value-Added Services
Mastercard moved $9.8 trillion in 2024 at a 55% operating margin, and everyone calls it a flawless network effect. The court records say otherwise: the moat was fortified by exclusionary rules that cost $5.54 billion to settle - which is why the real moat is quietly moving somewhere else - toward the value-added layer of fraud, identity, and data services that now accounts for nearly 40% of Mastercard's revenues and is growing far faster than the core network.
8 min
The Moat Anatomy · Moat & Competition
Mastercard's moat is a 60-year switching rail nobody can rebuild — and it takes no credit risk
People think Mastercard is protected by 'Priceless' and network effects. The real moat is a 60-year-old switching rail nobody can rebuild from zero, a model that touches none of the credit risk, and a $10.8B services arm quietly moving revenue off the rail regulators are slowly winning.
8 min