Touting heavier consumer and commercial card-spending as the economy gradually improves, MasterCard Worldwide on Aug. 3 said its second-quarter purchase volume showed healthy increases in all worldwide regions, with its biggest gains in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Regions outside the U.S. now account for 60% of the company’s total quarterly revenues, up from 57% a year earlier, Martina Hund-Mejean, MasterCard’s chief financial officer, told analysts during conference call to discuss the earnings. Non-U.S. revenues grew at about 30% during the quarter compared with 12% in the U.S., she said.
MasterCard’s net income rose 32.8% to $608 million from $458 million a year earlier. Net revenue was $1.7 billion, up 21.4% from $1.4 billion.
Purchase volume grew across the board, helped by an increase in cross-border transactions, or spending by cardholders outside of their home regions, Hund-Mejean noted.
Worldwide purchase volume for the quarter ended June 30 rose 23.3%, to $608 billion from $493 billion, the company announced Aug. 3. Total card transactions rose 14.7%, to 8.6 billion from 7.5 billion.
The U.S. generated its strongest purchase-volume increase since the fourth quarter of 2007, led by debit growth and stronger commercial credit card activity, Ajay Banga, MasterCard president and CEO, told analysts.
But Banga cautioned analysts not to read too much into the purchase-volume gains, noting that the overall global economy continues to be sluggish.
“Much of this increase is likely driven by inflation, given persistently higher prices for gas and other commodities,” he said, noting that year-over-year comparisons were “easier” because of the significant slowdown in overall consumer spending last year.
U.S. debit purchase volume during the quarter rose 19.5%, to $98 billion from $82 billion, with total debit transactions up 19%, to 2.5 trillion from 2.1 trillion.
Debit purchase volume outside the U.S. rose 45%, to $58 billion from $40 billion, with transaction volume up 29.2%, to 978 million from 757 million.
U.S. credit card purchase volume rose 6.6%, to $129 billion from $121 billion, with total transactions up 2.7%, to 1.52 trillion from 1.48 trillion.
Outside the U.S., credit card purchase volume rose 29.7%, to $323 billion from $249 billion, with transaction volume up 16.1%, to 3.6 trillion from 3.1 trillion.
Total credit and debit purchase volume in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region rose 40.4%, to $132 billion from $94 billion.
In Latin America, total purchase volume rose, 37.9% to $40 billion from $29 billion.
Europe’s total purchase volume rose 26.6%, to $181 billion from $143 billion.
In Canada, total purchase volume rose 16.7%, to $28 billion from $24 billion.
MasterCard’s total credit and debit accounts numbered 912 million at the end of the quarter, up 8.2% from 843 million a year ago.
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