Defined Terms and Documents       

Credit Card Payment Schemes or Credit Card Schemes or  Payment Schemes or Scheme Providers or Card Networks or Network Operators means according to the "Murray Financial System Enquiry - Payments Sector" MasterCard and Visa are the main providers of Credit Card payment schemes, with a combined market share of 80.7 per cent.34  For these schemes, Credit Card Issuers that issue their Credit Cards provide the credit to the Credit Cardholders under a Four-Party Scheme.

The main competition for Four-Party Scheme comes from American Express (Amex) and Diners Club, which provide credit to the Cardholders in addition to operating the Scheme Network under a Three-Party Scheme. 

Visa and MasterCard were previously owned by banks. Visa became public in early 2008, and MasterCard in 2006.

Credit Card Networks means (for Australia) Visa, MasterCard, eftpos, American Express and Diners Club that -

(i)         dictate where Credit Cards can be used; and

(ii)        facilitate the payment process between Credit Cardholders, Merchants, and Credit Card Issuers.

Two of the Credit Card Networks  – American Express and Diners club – also issue their own Credit Cards.

Credit Cards issued under the Visa or MasterCard Four-Party Schemes are only issued by Credit Card Issuers (banks, retailers, airlines etc), but NOT by Visa or MasterCard.

Amex and Diners Club's combined market share has increased -

-        from 14.6 per cent of the value of transactions in April 2003;

-        to 19.3 per cent in April 2014.35:

  • Visa card numbers start with a 4.

  • MasterCard numbers start with the numbers 51 through 55, but this will only detect MasterCard credit cards; there are other cards issued using the MasterCard system that do not fall into this IIN range.   MasterCard is a global bank card payments brand and network that provides it’s services to banks and merchants as follows: 
    *    Franchisor    : Through the thousands of financial institutions that are MasterCard’s customers, the company markets a strong portfolio of brands and products worldwide, including MasterCard, Maestro®, Cirrus® and MasterCard® PayPass™.  With these, MasterCard offers a network of more than 24 million acceptance locations around the world and, in many cases, guarantees payment through its system. (It does not, however, issue cards, set annual fees, determine annual percentage rates on cards, or solicit merchants to accept cards.  MasterCard’s customers, a myriad of financial institutions worldwide, manage the relationships with their cardholders and with merchants.) 
     *    Processor: MasterCard’s processing enables efficient commerce on a global scale. 

  • American Express card numbers start with 34 or 37 
    Also known as AMEX, this company is one of the main international credit card issuing schemes. It issues its own credit cards—unlike Visa and MasterCard who supply their cards to     Credit Card Issuers —and is responsible for its own relationships with 'Merchants'.

  • Diners Club card numbers begin with 300 through 305, 36 or 38. There are Diners Club cards that begin with 5 and have 16 digits. These are a joint venture between Diners Club and MasterCard, and should be processed like a MasterCard.

  • Discover card numbers begin with 6011 or 65.

  • JCB cards begin with 2131, 1800 or 35.

 See Payment Card Networks, Four Party Schemes, Three Party Schemes, eftpos Cards, Payment Systems and eftpos