When was MasterCard introduced?

Mastercard Incorporated (stylized as mastercard) is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters in Purchase, New York, United States. The Global Operations Headquarters is located in O'Fallon, Missouri, United States, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the "Mastercard" brand debit and credit cards to make purchases.

The original banks behind MasterCard were United California Bank (later First Interstate Bank and subsequently merged into Wells Fargo Bank), Wells Fargo, Crocker National Bank (also subsequently merged into Wells Fargo), and the Bank of California (subsequently merged into the Union Bank of California).

In 1966, the aforementioned group of California banks formed the Interbank Card Association (ICA). With the help of New York's Marine Midland Bank (now HSBC Bank USA), these banks joined with the ICA to create "Master Charge: The Interbank Card". The card was given a significant boost in 1969, when First National City Bank joined, merging its proprietary Everything Card with Master Charge.