What is the difference between Visa, Mastercard and American Express?
Visa and Mastercard are four-party card networks: they set rules and run the infrastructure, while banks issue the cards and acquirers sign the merchants. American Express traditionally issues cards and acquires merchants itself, and also licenses partners. For merchants, American Express often means a separate contract and different pricing from Visa and Mastercard.
In detail
The three brands look similar to a cardholder. Their business models differ.
Visa and Mastercard
- Model: four-party. The network connects issuers and acquirers and does not issue cards or sign merchants itself.
- Reach: more than 200 countries and territories each.
- Scale: Visa reported 4.9 billion payment credentials in 2025. Mastercard reported 3.7 billion cards at the end of 2025.
- Pricing: interchange goes to the issuer, scheme fees go to the network, and the acquirer adds its margin.
The two networks are close in structure. Differences appear in fee schedules, dispute rules, monitoring programs and some products.
American Express
- Model: historically three-party. American Express issues cards, acquires merchants and runs the network.
- Partners: it also licenses institutions in about 110 countries and territories to issue its cards and acquire merchants.
- Scale: 152.8 million cards-in-force at the end of 2025.
- Merchant side: acceptance often requires a specific agreement, with its own pricing and settlement.
For an operator, supporting all three means handling two rule sets that are close to each other and a third that is organized differently. See card networks and interchange fees. Being scheme ready covers the technical side of each network’s requirements.