New York, Feb 16, 2026, 18:49 ET — Market closed.
Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) shares fell 1.7% on Friday to $518.36, extending a three-session slide and leaving the stock down about 4% over the run. About 4.0 million shares changed hands, according to daily market data. (Investing)
Why it matters now: the U.S. cash session is shut on Monday for Washington’s Birthday, compressing the week and pushing positioning into Tuesday’s reopen. In a short week, small headlines can move prices more than usual.
For Mastercard, the near-term read-through is simple. It lives on transaction fees — more card spending and cross-border travel usually mean more revenue — so traders tend to mark it to any swing in the spending outlook or policy noise around card payments.
Some of that noise is coming from the UK. Bank chiefs plan a first meeting on Thursday to map out a national alternative to the Visa and Mastercard networks under a project dubbed “DeliveryCo”, the Guardian reported. The report said Barclays UK chief executive Vim Maru is expected to chair, with Bank of England technical support and an ambition for a new system by around 2030. (The Guardian)
The Bank of England has also been pushing a wider debate on how people pay. “We want UK consumers to have the option to pay retailers … directly out of their bank accounts,” Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said in a speech on plans that include account-to-account payments — money moving straight between bank accounts rather than via card schemes. Reuters reported cash is used for less than 10% of payments in Britain, while cards account for nearly two thirds of transactions. (Reuters)
Fee regulation is another moving part. Mastercard, Visa and Revolut lost a legal challenge in January over Britain’s proposed cap on cross-border card fees, Reuters reported; interchange fees are the charges merchants’ banks pay card issuers on each purchase. Visa has said price caps can “negatively impact the value people and businesses receive” from card payments. (Reuters)
Investors have also been digesting Mastercard’s own cost moves. Chief financial officer Sachin Mehra told analysts the company expects a “one-time restructuring charge in Q1 of approximately $200 million” after a review that affects about 4% of its full-time employees. (Reuters)
Operationally, Mastercard has kept leaning into corporate payments. The company said it teamed up with Azerbaijan’s ABB to launch what it called the country’s first dedicated corporate travel and expense card, pitched as a way to replace cash-based processes and tighten expense controls for business travel. (Mastercard)
On the calendar, the first test for payment names comes from the macro tape: U.S. retail-sales data and the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes are due this week, with GDP also scheduled before Friday. Those releases can shift expectations for consumer demand — and, by extension, card volumes. (Scotiabank)
But the path is not clean. If bank-to-bank options gain traction faster than expected, or if fee caps spread, the economics of card networks could come under pressure. A softer patch in spending would amplify that, especially with investors watching how much of Mastercard’s near-term margin story gets absorbed by restructuring and investment spend.
When trading resumes on Tuesday, the next company-defined catalyst comes in early March: Mastercard said Raj Seshadri will speak at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on March 4, followed by Americas president Linda Kirkpatrick at the Wolfe FinTech Forum on March 10. (Mastercard)
