Mastercard Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Mastercard exceeded its Q2 expectations: Currency-neutral net revenue rose 12% year over year, adjusted net income increased 16%, and adjusted EPS climbed 19% to $5.04. Value-added services revenue grew 18%, while the company repurchased $4.9 billion of stock.
• Payment activity remained strong: Global gross dollar volume increased 8%, cross-border volume rose 12%, and commercial payment volume grew 12%. Contactless payments reached 80% of in-person switched purchase transactions, and Mastercard added more than 230 million net new cards over the past year.
• Mastercard maintained a positive outlook: The company expects third-quarter revenue growth at the high end of the low-double-digit range and raised its expected position within its full-year 2026 revenue-growth range, citing stronger first-half performance while continuing to monitor geopolitical and economic risks.

Mastercard NYSE: MA reported second-quarter 2026 results that exceeded its expectations, supported by continued consumer and business spending, cross-border activity and demand for its value-added services.

On a non-GAAP, currency-neutral basis, net revenue rose 12% year over year, adjusted net income increased 16%, and value-added services and solutions revenue grew 18%, Chief Executive Officer Michael Miebach said on the company’s earnings call. Operating income increased 14%, while adjusted earnings per share rose 19% to $5.04, including a $0.14 contribution from share repurchases.

Chief Financial Officer Sachin Mehra said Mastercard repurchased $4.9 billion of stock during the quarter and an additional approximately $700 million through July 27. Mehra is leaving the CFO role to become Mastercard’s chief business officer, while Ling Hai, currently president of Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, will become CFO effective Aug. 3.

Payment volumes and cross-border activity

Worldwide gross dollar volume increased 8% on a local-currency basis during the second quarter. U.S. gross dollar volume rose 6%, reflecting 10% credit growth and 1% debit growth. Mehra said the Capital One debit portfolio migration was substantially completed in the first quarter; excluding its effect, U.S. debit gross dollar volume would have grown 8%.

Outside the U.S., gross dollar volume grew 9%, with credit volume up 9% and debit volume up 10%. Cross-border volume increased 12% globally, driven by both travel and non-travel spending.

Mehra said the company’s second-quarter results benefited from a lower-than-expected impact from instability in the Middle East, increased cross-border card-not-present spending from Venezuela, and strong demand for value-added services. Mastercard’s cross-border card-not-present spending excluding travel rose 20%, aided by spending from Venezuela and the timing of large retail promotional events.

In the first four weeks of July, operating metrics remained “relatively stable and strong,” Mehra said. He added that U.S. switched volume growth, excluding Capital One debit and on a like-for-like basis, reached 10%, two percentage points higher sequentially, helped by fuel spending and continued consumer and business demand.

Mastercard processed 9% more switched transactions in the quarter. Contactless represented 80% of in-person switched purchase transactions, up five percentage points from a year earlier, while token penetration exceeded 40% of switched transactions. The company had 3.7 billion Mastercard and Maestro-branded cards issued globally, up 5% year over year.

Services growth and security investments

Value-added services and solutions revenue increased 18%, led by security solutions, consumer acquisition and engagement, digital and authentication services, business and market insights, and pricing. Miebach said approximately 60% of value-added services revenue is network-linked, allowing Mastercard to attach services to payment transactions, tokens and card-not-present activity.

The company highlighted its cybersecurity and fraud-prevention offerings, including capabilities obtained through its Recorded Future acquisition. Mastercard Threat Intelligence, a payment-fraud offering launched during the past year, identified more than 7 million card-testing transactions across 192 countries in its first three quarters, according to Miebach. He said the activity prevented an estimated $172 million in fraud linked to malicious domains.

Miebach also said Mastercard launched Merchant Trust Services, a suite of artificial intelligence-powered capabilities designed to identify fraudulent merchants. The company is seeing increased demand for security products as customers respond to a growing threat landscape involving AI and new frontier models, he said.

Network expansion, digital assets and commercial payments

Mastercard said its switching penetration reached 72%. During the quarter, the company announced a partnership with Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, to provide switching technology for portions of the country’s domestic payments infrastructure. Mastercard will serve as the prime international scheme for co-badged credit cards with the domestic Jaywan scheme and will provide services including fraud prevention and cybersecurity.

The company also reported several issuing relationship wins and renewals, including the renewal of Chase Freedom Flex in the U.S. and a Banamex partnership in Mexico covering nearly 19 million cards. Mastercard said it added more than 230 million net new cards during the 12 months through the second quarter.

Commercial debit and credit volume grew 12% in the quarter. Miebach said the company has added an average of 6 million small-business cards per quarter over the past several quarters. New commercial-related initiatives included virtual-card capabilities for Truist Bank’s corporate invoice payments and a partnership with Riyadh Air involving branded prepaid and credit cards as well as virtual-card payments for travel agents and supplier payments.

On digital assets, Miebach said Mastercard expects to close its BVNK acquisition during the third quarter. He described BVNK as an enterprise-grade payment orchestration platform that can support the sending, receiving, storage and conversion of digital assets. The company expects the acquisition to have a minimal impact on third-quarter revenue but some impact on operating expenses.

Mastercard also discussed its Agent Pay initiatives for agentic commerce and machine-to-machine payments. Miebach said cards can remain central to consumer and business agentic transactions because of their acceptance reach, security features, tokenization and dispute-resolution capabilities. He said stablecoins may play a role in machine-to-machine payment settlement, but the company expects a mix of payment rails, digital assets and fiat currencies to coexist.

Outlook

For the third quarter, Mastercard expects currency-neutral net revenue growth at the high end of the low-double-digit range, excluding inorganic activity. It expects operating expense growth in the low-double-digit range, excluding inorganic activity and special items.

For full-year 2026, the company maintained its forecast for currency-neutral revenue growth at the high end of the low-double-digit range, excluding inorganic activity, but Mehra said it now expects to finish higher within that range because of the stronger first half. Mastercard expects full-year operating expense growth in the low-double-digit range on the same basis.

Mehra said Mastercard’s base case assumes spending remains healthy through the second half, while the company continues to monitor geopolitical developments, energy prices, unemployment and inflation.

About Mastercard (NYSE:MA)

Mastercard Incorporated is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. The company facilitates electronic payments and transaction processing for credit, debit and prepaid card products carrying the Mastercard brand, while also providing a range of payment-related services to issuers, acquirers and merchants. Its technology and network enable authorization, clearing and settlement of payments and support a broad set of use cases including point-of-sale, e-commerce and mobile payments.

Beyond core transaction processing, Mastercard offers a suite of value-added services such as fraud and risk management, identity and authentication tools, tokenization and digital wallet support, cross-border and commercial payment solutions, and data analytics and consulting services for merchants and financial partners.

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