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05/02/2010 -
Fueled by increased payment processing and cross-border volumes, MasterCard reported a fourth quarter 2009 net income of $294 million, or $2.24 per diluted share, the company announced Thursday. Net revenue was $1.3 billion for that quarter, which represents a year-over-year increase of 6 percent.
This strong performance was partially due to the fact that customer spending - and consequently payment processing transactions - have increased as the economy rebounds, as the report showed a 5.7 percent increase in worldwide purchase volume for the fourth quarter.
There was also a 6.7 percent increase in the number of transactions processed, coming in at 5.9 billion, while there was a 5.3 percent growth in MasterCard's gross dollar volume.
"In the fourth quarter, we saw encouraging signs with regard to key aspects of our business as cross-border volumes increased and processed transactions continued to grow," MasterCard CEO Robert W. Selander said. "Overall, we are very pleased with our performance, and we look forward to building on that momentum as the global economic climate continues to improve."
Visa also reported solid quarterly earnings this week, driven by higher debit and credit card processing activity in the first fiscal quarter of 2010, which ended December 31, 2009.
