Earnings Review: Maximizing today’s trends, building for tomorrow

In recent weeks, there has been great interest and discussion about the consumer and their spending habits. After all, what they buy and how they buy it gives business owners, policymakers, economists and so many others a window into how the consumer feels about the current environment. So, how will the broad economy impact what they do?

Today, we reported on our third quarter performance. The data says it clearly:

The consumer is resilient. The consumer is still spending. And cross-border travel continues to recover.

There’s strength in these trends. The trends also point to a focus on experiences over retail goods. In the past three months, we saw them continue to prioritize purchase in the airline, lodging and restaurant categories. They’re getting out of the home and living. In fact, the mix of spend between retail, travel and entertainment, and other categories of spend is now broadly similar to pre-pandemic levels.

We know there are questions on what the future might hold. If there are continued economic headwinds, what might we do? We obviously are monitoring those factors closely. We are – and will continue – to execute on our strategic priorities, controlling those elements that we can.

This is also an area where our unique business model is an advantage. It’s also where the focus of our teams on three priorities – payments, services and new networks – plays a key role. It expands the value and impact we deliver to our customers and partners. And, it diversifies our revenues, Let’s take a look at a few examples:

Expanding in payments

If you listened to the call, you heard about how our teams are deepening relationships with customers and co-brand partners. Being able to make that payment when you want and how you want is core to our promise. This comes in both the way and where payments are made. We’ve added more acceptance locations in the last five years than the previous 50 and are now accepted at more than 90 million merchant locations – online and in-store, contactless, chip and more.

Extending our services

It’s as much the insights that fuel cybersecurity, protection against fraud, and trust in the network as it is the trends that power businesses and smarter decisions. For example, Dynamic Yield’s unique personalization platform is creating stronger relationships – and return visits – between retailers and their customers.

Embracing new networks

We’ve talked about these adjacent areas to our business. It’s where we’re committed to think differently and lead the industry as opportunities like open banking and digital ID begin to take hold for people and companies. It’s about putting the consumer at the center of it all, ensuring responsible data practices and consumer protections. That’s how they’ll be able to activate their data to improve their lives.

Our teams are focused on driving this momentum forward. Please continue to visit this site to see some of that work. Thanks for your interest in our business.