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Hell-bent on protecting its dominant share of the U.S. debit card market amid new regulations, Visa Inc. introduced pricing incentives for merchants to route more transactions over its network.
July 28 -
Cards payments processor Heartland Payments System Inc. on Thursday said it expects its 2011 earnings to be higher than it previously forecasted after reporting a jump in second-quarter profit and sales.
July 28 -
Visa's fiscal third-quarter net income rose 40.4% due partly to a gain from the revaluation of a deal with Visa Europe.
July 27
Higher spending on its credit and debit cards boosted MasterCard Inc.'s second-quarter net revenue by 22.1% from a year earlier.
The Purchase, N.Y., card network on Wednesday reported net revenue of $1.7 billion in the quarter that ended June 30, up from $1.4 billion in the year-ago quarter.
The number of transactions that MasterCard processed grew 17.4% to 6.6 billion and the amount of money customers spent with its cards rose 16.4% on a local currency basis to $811 billion. The latter figure includes card purchases, balance transfers and convenience checks customers made.
In addition to higher spending, the company is also benefiting from the conversion of SunTrust Banks Inc.'s and Banco Santander SA's Sovereign Bank's card portfolios to the MasterCard network, Ajay Banga, MasterCard's president and chief executive said in a press release.
MasterCard's net income increased 32.8% to $608 million, or $4.76 per diluted share, from $458 million, or $3.49 per diluted share, a year earlier.
The results mirror those of Visa Inc., which last week reported higher revenue and earnings on increased transaction volumes. The San Francisco company also unveiled a new pricing structure for merchants that accept its cards in response to the Federal Reserve Board's new debit card rules, which begin taking effect in October.
MasterCard is expected to discuss its strategy for dealing with the rules on a conference call Wednesday morning.
