Yes, they are actually working together a lot. There is PCI (Payment Card Industry) and then there is EMV. There is probably more but the two have been important from my point of view.
The main motivation for this is to make payment technology transparent to the user (as in use any card anywhere, expect similar behavior, etc.) A lot of this is standardized so much that it is virtually the same for both.
And I know this, because it was my job to implement these standards. I calculated some 17 thousand pages of specifications in various forms.
Both Visa and Mastercard gain a lot form this because it is not a zero-sum game. Because of this cooperation people have been steadily increasing their use of credit card payments and this I think created a lot more revenue than they could have ever created for themselves by winning a cutthroat competition.
The main motivation for this is to make payment technology transparent to the user (as in use any card anywhere, expect similar behavior, etc.) A lot of this is standardized so much that it is virtually the same for both.
And I know this, because it was my job to implement these standards. I calculated some 17 thousand pages of specifications in various forms.
Both Visa and Mastercard gain a lot form this because it is not a zero-sum game. Because of this cooperation people have been steadily increasing their use of credit card payments and this I think created a lot more revenue than they could have ever created for themselves by winning a cutthroat competition.