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It was originally created as Master Charge by the United California Bank (now part of Wells Fargo) as a competitor to the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America. BankAmericard is now the VISA credit card, issued by Visa International .
In the late 1990s, MasterCard merged with Access, in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and EuroCard , in Continental Europe, and quickly removed the old names from cards, ATMs and in-store validators.
MasterCard is also part of the Cirrus ATM (cash machine) network, and also has the Maestro debit card network as well as the Master Money debit card, which competes against Visa International 's more successful Check card.