Earnings Review: Resiliency and growth

Headlines are designed to catch your attention and draw the reader in for more information. With so much talk about the economic and political environment, I wanted to start this quarterly review of our business with a headline of our own. 

Consumer spending has remained resilient. 

Yes, there are factors impacting consumer purchase decisions. But we’re seeing low unemployment and rising wages. We are monitoring the environment closely, but we’re seeing that spending patterns have largely normalized in most markets. One example is that people continue to travel where they can. In fact, in the first three weeks of January, inbound cross-border travel to all regions is now above the comparable period in 2019. 

And, with people — and businesses — continuing to look for greater choices, value and efficiencies in their everyday lives, there’s a significant growth opportunity in electronic payments and related services. 

Today, we reported on our fourth quarter and 2022 full-year financial performance. In our conference call, we discussed our strong quarter and the momentum that helps as we enter into a new year. A few examples include: 

Expanding in payments: When consumers pay, they want it to be a seamless, safe and predictable experience. During the call, we highlighted expanded and extended relationships, winning substantial new business with banks and fintechs. Payments may have started with the card, but the opportunities extend to more areas like Mastercard Installments, B2B accounts payable services through virtual cards, and consumer bill payment. 

Extending our services: Whether cyber, loyalty or analytics and insights capabilities, our services provide our customers and partners enhanced value in how they support the end user or manage their business. For example, we’re working with governments to provide tourism and retail spending trends and deploying our personalization capabilities across the retail sector.  

Embracing new networks: Our open banking capabilities help make a consumers’ data, combined with our connectivity, work harder for them. One example is how this technology is helping to modernize ACH payments and a seamless experience in the Pay-by-Bank bill payment solution we introduced with J.P. Morgan Payments. 

As I look to 2023 and what’s ahead, I believe we are well positioned to address the significant growth opportunities ahead. We have a clear strategy. Our diversified business model is a proven differentiator and allows us to deliver value in and beyond the transaction. We are making progress against the priorities we’ve set as an organization. Add to that a relentless focus on managing the things we can control, and you can understand the position I see for Mastercard.