MasterCard Revenue Boost Tops Target

The revenue boost produced by increased prices once again exceeded MasterCard Inc.'s long-term target in the third quarter.

Price increases accounted for about 6% of the Purchase, N.Y., payment company's year-over-year net revenue growth, it said in its financial report Tuesday. MasterCard's target is to increase prices by about 2% a year.

Meanwhile, price concessions for issuers are set to increase.

Rebates MasterCard gives to customers to encourage the use of its network increased by 5.5% from the previous quarter and were flat from a year earlier at $363 million in the quarter. The company said that lower rebates because of lower transaction volume were offset by increases from new and renewed customer agreements.

It forecast that fourth-quarter rebates would be significantly higher than a year earlier because of the new agreements and rebates of recent price increases.

In an interview, Martina Hund-Mejean, MasterCard's chief financial officer, said most issuers are protected from price increases by agreements with MasterCard that establish rebate terms, but the company typically does not have such agreements with acquirers.

MasterCard renewed and extended its agreement for its issuing business with Bank of America Corp. — one of its biggest customers — last month. Other recent deals included a "long-term extension" of an agreement with Continental Airlines Inc. for cobranded cards issued primarily by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

MasterCard swung to a net profit of $452 million in the period as net revenue increased 6.6% from the previous quarter and 2% from a year earlier to $1.4 billion.

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