The BBW50: Why MasterCard Is on Top

Our annual look at the S&P 500’s leaders reveals the surprising strength of consumer brands and energy companies. No. 1? MasterCard

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By Laura Marcinek

January 20, 2012 at 1:45 AM UTC

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This article is part of the January 23, 2012 issue of businessweek.

Ajay Banga has declared war on cash. As chief executive officer of MasterCard, he wants his troops to do whatever they can to persuade consumers to slap down the plastic and increase the 15 percent of global retail transactions made with credit and debit cards or other electronic means. “The war on cash was really a rallying cry for everyone to focus on the 85 percent,” Banga says.

Cards accounted for 48 percent of total U.S. consumer purchases in 2010, according to the Nilson Report, a credit-card industry newsletter. By 2015, plastic’s share could surge to 59 percent, the report shows. And the shift is happening even faster abroad, according to investment bank KBW. That will give a boost to MasterCard, which sees 64 percent of its purchase volume outside the U.S.—vs. 47 percent at archrival Visa.