Earnings Review: Technology (and payments) are personal

Every day, people are working to achieve their goals. For some, it might be creating and growing a business. For others, it could be finding celebrations in travel or gathering with friends and family. For every person, these goals are personal and when they’re achieved, the results are meaningful. They support local communities. They help inspire and power others. It’s that impact and ability to have a personal connection that drives us every day. It fuels our aspiration to power economies and empower people.  

Our efforts to expand in payments, extend our services and embrace new networks start with our customers. It’s about understanding their needs and preferences. That helps us be a stronger partner to the financial institutions, businesses, fintechs and governments that have a direct relationship with the end user. 

That appreciation and focus guides our innovation and drives the creativity of our teams as we co-create with partners and customers. The fruits of those efforts are seen in the second quarter results that we reported today. 

In our conference call, we discussed our strong quarter and how the diversified business that we have built and reinforced over years continues to deliver for our partners and customers. Yes, we are seeing resilience in consumer spending, with a particular focus on experiences and travel. Equally, there is strong momentum across other parts of the business, as companies of all sizes lean into the technology, insights and services we provide to help power their activities and deliver greater value to their customers. 

I’d like to reinforce a few examples of how our strategy came to life this quarter: 

Expanding in payments: You’re likely familiar with our prioritization of enabling choice in how people and businesses want to pay — card, ACH, open banking and more. We continue to focus on these efforts, as seen in a number of activities across Europe. Our expanded partnership with UniCredit across 12 markets leans into both our digital capabilities and our credit and debit offerings. That builds on success we have seen in strengthening our debit business in the U.K. This same emphasis on choice is reinforced by Alipay and Tencent’s announcements that we’re helping international travelers “pay like a local” in China. 

Extending our services: Our services add to and benefit from the choice in payments. Insights from these efforts inform the additional value we deliver. You see it in the combination of our loyalty, consulting and identity services to help our customers maximize the travel recovery. And it’s delivered in new solutions like our AI-powered Consumer Fraud Risk product to predict and prevent payment scams. 

Embracing new networks: Open banking and digital identity remain a growth opportunity adjacent to the core payment. We’re taking our experiences and learnings to expand into new verticals. One example is how we used our fraud prevention capabilities to ensure the All-Star Game votes in the U.S. were authentic. 

As we close the chapter on the second quarter, we’re proud of the results we delivered.  

Our teams remain focused on taking what’s unique to Mastercard — our differentiated capabilities and business model — and making it work for our customers. That, combined with our focused strategy, position us well to capitalize on the significant opportunity in front of us and maximize the value we deliver.