The shift to a cashless society has been a boon for credit card companies and helped insulate them from the economic downturn.
For MasterCard, both the number of transactions and their dollar value jumped more than 18% in the third quarter.
MasterCard is the credit card provider best positioned to capture an outsize share of the growing pie of swipes. It has the largest share of customers in emerging markets with roughly half of the company's revenue coming from outside the United States.
MasterCard has also been aggressively investing in technology and expanding partnerships to boost its presence on mobile platforms. Its PayPass technology works with Google's Android Wallet application.
Meanwhile all debit-card companies declared victory on regulations related to debit-card fees. On June 30, the Federal Reserve decided that banks could charge fees of up to 27 cents for a debit-card purchase. That's more than double the original limits proposed under Dodd-Frank regulatory reform.
It was a tough year for many major corporations, but this neglected bouquet of Fortune 500 companies stood out for particularly poor performance. From a bankrupt airline to an aging camera maker, here are the biggest losers.
