Lesson 2 · Foundations · Both · 13 min
Networks & Card Products
Compare Visa, Mastercard, RuPay, Amex, and UnionPay, then classify debit, credit, prepaid, and commercial products by economics and use case.
Objectives
- ▸Position each major network's role and footprint
- ▸Distinguish debit, credit, prepaid, and commercial cards
- ▸Explain co-brand and network-of-choice at acceptance
- ▸Relate product choice to auth, credit risk, and rewards
Visa and Mastercard are global four-party networks with broad acceptance and detailed rulebooks. RuPay is India's domestic network (NPCI) with strong debit/UPI-adjacent presence and government/ecosystem push including NCMC. American Express skews three-party/closed in many markets with premium positioning. UnionPay has massive China domestic scale and growing international acceptance via partnerships.
- Acceptance ≠ issuance: a market can accept a brand widely while issuing mix differs
- Routing: dual-badged cards may prefer a network by region or least-cost rules
- Scheme rules govern disputes, marks, and merchant obligations
Key terms
VisaMastercardRuPayAmerican ExpressUnionPayDebitCreditPrepaid / PPICommercial cardInterchange