This year marks two significant anniversaries for Mastercard—60 years as a company and 20 years since its IPO. These milestones offer a fitting moment for all of us to reflect on how far Mastercard has come.

Today, Mastercard is a globe-spanning, AI-enabled network that is securing the digital economy and processed more than 175 billion transactions last year. During the six decades since its founding, the company has built a foundation of trust, innovation, expertise and brand recognition, which continues to power its growth and leadership.

In 2025, Mastercard delivered across each of its three strategic pillars—core payments, services and commercial and new payment flows—sustaining strong momentum across all four quarters.

In recent years, geopolitical and technological currents continue to cause business conditions to evolve, bringing both complexity and opportunity. Artificial intelligence and digital assets, in particular, are reshaping industry conversations and the landscape. Mastercard has met changes with confidence, grounded in the strength of its strategy and the quality of its execution.

Years of deliberate investment—to rearchitect its payments technology, diversify its business model and scale its services—have positioned the company to compete effectively and deliver value for investors in a rapidly changing payments arena. The company provides world-class solutions regardless of how people choose to pay.

By advancing agentic commerce through Agent Pay and forging partnerships that extend functionality and acceptance to digital assets, Mastercard has broadened and deepened its core payments offerings.

A growing payments business generates richer data, which in turn strengthens Mastercard’s virtuous cycle and powers its industry-leading services. Mastercard is recognized as a leader in cybersecurity and a trusted partner in protecting the digital ecosystem. The integration of Recorded Future’s expertise and its threat intelligence capabilities exemplifies the kind of differentiated solutions that Mastercard is delivering across a broad range of customers and use cases.

By combining a strong commitment to local relationships with the reach and scale of its global network, Mastercard is building a path that serves customers’ needs today while opening opportunity for the future. Mastercard also made meaningful progress last year in serving the commercial market, with a particular focus on addressing the practical needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

As always, inclusive and sustainable growth remains a priority—Mastercard is developing standards and practices to ensure that the digital economy works for everyone, works everywhere and remains reliable and secure.

As a Board, we draw on our diverse perspectives and experience to ask hard questions and insist on rigorous answers. We are clear-eyed about risk and equally focused on the opportunities that Mastercard is distinctively positioned to capture. That oversight responsibility has only grown in importance given shifting global conditions. We remain committed to independent, substantive engagement—both in our governance role and in contributing expertise that helps the company succeed.

Candid communication and transparency define the working relationship between Mastercard’s leadership team and the Board. I also take this opportunity to recognize Michael on a milestone of his own—five years as CEO. It has been five years of principled stewardship and a valued partnership with the Board in building lasting stockholder value.

Whether strengthening a country’s economic resilience, supporting small businesses at the local level, or leveraging the unique capabilities of a global network to anticipate what comes next, Mastercard is making a tangible difference.

Building on 60 years of experience and results, we believe Mastercard is well-positioned for what lies ahead.

I extend my sincere gratitude to everyone at Mastercard—from the leadership team to the local teams around the world. Your work powers this company’s success.

To our investors, thank you for your continued confidence in Mastercard. I look forward to our conversation at the annual meeting.