Mastercard - Economic Audit

Supply Chain & Sourcing Relationships

Mastercard operates as a global payments network rather than a retailer, importer, or manufacturer of physical goods, and No public evidence identified links the company to Israeli agricultural aggregators or exporters such as Mehadrin, Hadiklaim, or Galilee Export ¹. No public evidence identified of Mastercard functioning as an importer of record for goods originating in Israel or the occupied territories. No public evidence identified of seasonal or produce-based sourcing arrangements involving Mastercard. No public evidence identified of third-party or indirect sourcing relationships tying Mastercard to Israeli settlement-linked supply chains, consistent with the company’s structural position as a card network rather than a goods-handling enterprise.

Product Origin, Labeling & Regulatory Compliance

Mastercard does not sell or distribute physical products subject to country-of-origin or settlement labeling requirements, and No public evidence identified of settlement-origin product labeling issues involving the company ¹. No public evidence identified of labeling compliance or non-compliance enforcement actions against Mastercard. No public corporate policy statement was identified addressing sourcing or labeling of goods from occupied territories, a category structurally inapplicable to Mastercard’s core payments-network business ¹.

Investment, Capital & Financial Exposure

Mastercard holds a 10% equity stake in SHVA (Automated Bank Services Ltd.), Israel’s national interbank card-switching company, following an April 30, 2019 permit granted by the Governor of the Bank of Israel to acquire the stake from Bank Hapoalim ²³⁴. The transaction occurred amid new Israeli legislation compelling the country’s largest banks to reduce their SHVA holdings below 10%, opening the ownership structure to international payment specialists; Visa separately received approval around the same period to acquire a 10% SHVA stake from Bank Leumi ⁴. SHVA functions as Israel’s central bank-card clearing and switching infrastructure ⁵⁶. No evidence of divestment from the SHVA stake was identified, though its status has not been independently reconfirmed since 2019.

In December 2021, Mastercard agreed to acquire Dynamic Yield, a Tel Aviv/New York-headquartered AI personalization platform, from McDonald’s, with the transaction closing by April 2022 ⁴⁷⁸⁹. Dynamic Yield was founded in 2011/2012 by Liad Agmon and Omri Mendellevich and had been purchased by McDonald’s for approximately $300 million in 2019; the exact price Mastercard paid was not officially disclosed ⁸⁹. Dynamic Yield now operates as a wholly-owned Mastercard subsidiary, co-located with Mastercard’s Israel office at “One Tower” in Ramat Gan ⁸⁹.

Mastercard and Enel X jointly established a FinSec Innovation Lab in Beersheba after winning a 2019 competitive tender issued by the Israel Innovation Authority, Israel National Cyber Directorate, and Ministry of Finance, receiving approximately $3.7 million in Israeli state funding under a three-year license, with the lab opening around 2021 ^1011121314. The lab focuses on API security, vulnerability management, ransomware defense, digital identity/authentication, virtual payment wallets, and fraud prevention, working with local Israeli startups ¹¹¹⁵.

Mastercard Incorporated has no parent company or controlling shareholder and trades as a single-class public company; its largest disclosed institutional holders include Vanguard Group and BlackRock, standard diversified asset managers rather than Israel-specific beneficial owners ¹⁶¹⁷. No public evidence identified of Mastercard holding Israeli sovereign bonds or Israel-focused fund positions on its own balance sheet, consistent with its business model as a payments network rather than an asset manager.

Operational Presence & Market Activity

Mastercard’s Israel office and the Dynamic Yield headquarters are co-located at “One Tower” in the Exchange District, Ramat Gan, within the Tel Aviv metropolitan area ⁸⁹. A separate FinSec Innovation Lab facility operates in Beersheba ¹¹. Mastercard’s Tel Aviv technology hub conducts AI-driven research and development activity described in company materials as central to Israel’s fintech and cybersecurity innovation ecosystem ¹⁵. Mastercard’s global 10-K disclosures report total company headcount (e.g., approximately 14,800 employees company-wide as of a recent year-end, with roughly 8,800 outside the United States) but do not break out an Israel-specific employee count ¹⁶¹⁷. No public evidence identified of an explicit market-tier characterization of Israel (e.g., as “minor” or “strategic growth”) in Mastercard’s investor materials or SEC filings, though press coverage repeatedly frames Israel as an innovation and technology-sourcing hub for the company ^{10111213141518}.

Corporate Structure & Foundational Ties

Mastercard Incorporated was founded and is incorporated in the United States (Delaware), with no evidence of Israeli founding or incorporation ¹⁶¹⁷. Its global headquarters is located in Purchase, New York, with the Tel Aviv/Ramat Gan office functioning solely as a regional technology hub rather than a dual or legacy headquarters ⁸⁹. Mastercard’s Israel presence derives structurally from its SHVA equity stake and its wholly-owned Dynamic Yield subsidiary ²³⁴⁸⁹. The FinSec Innovation Lab represents a formal joint undertaking with three Israeli government bodies - the Israel Innovation Authority, National Cyber Directorate, and Ministry of Finance - established through a competitive public tender ^1011121314. The SHVA stake required approval from the Governor of the Bank of Israel, embedding Mastercard as a licensed participant in Israel’s critical domestic payments infrastructure ²³⁴. No public evidence identified of Mastercard being designated critical national infrastructure itself, of Israeli government board appointees to Mastercard, or of golden shares, founder shares, or charter provisions tying Mastercard’s mission to the Israeli state.

Separately, Isracard - the Israeli card issuer historically majority-owned by Bank Hapoalim and licensed to issue Mastercard/Eurocard-branded cards - was subject to a 2025 ownership change in which Delek Group completed acquisition of a 37% stake, following Israeli Competition Authority approval ¹⁹²⁰²¹. This transaction concerns Isracard’s ownership structure and does not evidence a direct Mastercard corporate stake in Isracard; Isracard’s continued use of Mastercard branding operates under a separate licensing relationship ¹⁹.

Profit Repatriation & Economic Contribution

No Israel-specific revenue figures are disclosed in Mastercard’s reviewed 10-K filings; the company’s historical disclosure standard states that no single country outside the United States generates more than 10% of total revenues, and no more granular Israel breakout was located in the FY2022 or FY2023 filings ¹⁶¹⁷²². Structurally, Mastercard is a U.S.-domiciled parent holding Israeli operating assets - the SHVA equity stake, the Dynamic Yield subsidiary, and the FinSec Lab - such that economic value generated by these Israeli operations would be expected to flow outward to the U.S. parent, consistent with an acquired-identity, controlling-ownership pattern ^2348910. No specific repatriation dollar figures were identified. No public evidence identified of an industry report or government designation characterizing Mastercard as a “key employer” or “sector anchor” specifically within Israel, though press coverage credits the company as an active participant in Beersheba’s positioning as Israel’s cyber and fintech innovation center ¹¹.

Constructive Notice, Settlement Nexus & Post-October 7 Conduct

Mastercard is not named in the OHCHR database of businesses involved in Israeli settlements as updated September 26, 2025 (A/HRC/60/19), which lists 158 enterprises from 11 countries; the financial entities named in that update are Bank Leumi Le-Israel, Israel Discount Bank, Bank of Jerusalem, First International Bank of Israel, Mercantile Discount Bank, and Export Investment Co. ²³²⁴²⁵. Human Rights Watch’s 2018 Bankrolling Abuse report documented Israel’s seven largest banks - including Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Discount Bank, Mizrahi Tefahot, FIBI, Igud Bank, and Bank of Jerusalem - operating branches or financing construction in West Bank settlements, but this report does not mention Mastercard, Visa, Isracard, or SHVA anywhere in its content ²⁶. No public evidence identified naming Mastercard, Dynamic Yield, or SHVA in the PAX June 2024 Companies Arming Israel and Their Financiers report, which identifies European financial institutions rather than Mastercard as financiers of arms producers selling to Israel ²⁷. No public evidence identified naming Mastercard in the Don’t Buy Into Occupation 2024 report, which focuses on European banks, asset managers, insurers, and pension funds such as BNP Paribas, HSBC, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and Société Générale as largest creditors ²⁸²⁹.

As a comparator precedent, Mastercard suspended its network operations in Russia in March 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine, while continuing to pay approximately 200 Russia-based staff during the wind-down ³⁰. No public evidence identified of any comparable Mastercard statement, operational review, or network action regarding Israel following the events of October 7, 2023, the July 19, 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion, or the November 2024 ICC arrest warrants. Mastercard Israel employees organized a volunteer initiative after October 7, 2023 to build a donation-verification platform for communities near the Gaza border; this is documented as an employee-driven volunteer effort rather than a confirmed corporate donation or corporate policy ³¹. No public evidence identified of a direct Mastercard corporate donation to IDF or reservist funds. No public evidence identified of Mastercard-branded card acceptance, licensee, or franchise presence specifically documented within West Bank or Golan settlements distinct from ordinary nationwide network ubiquity ²⁶¹⁹.

End Notes