The financial results of Mastercard reveal that American customers continue to use credit cards for regular purchases.
According to the extra documents given by the payments network, gross dollar volumes increased 15% to $2.1 trillion. Volumes in the United States increased by 9% to $673 billion. Drilling down, loan volume in the United States increased by nearly 15% to $343 billion.
Cross-border volumes increased by 35% in the most recent quarter, while card-not-present cross-border volumes, excluding travel, increased by 17%. In the first few weeks of April, cross-border volumes fell slightly to 29%.
Cross-border volumes surpassed 171% as a percentage of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, as tourists use their cards to spend more on experiences while out and about.
During a conference call with investors, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach stated that “consumer spending has remained remarkably resilient.” The macro background is healthy, with savings remaining above historical levels. Credit is still available to consumers. China’s openness has been a “positive catalyst” in increasing travel-related spending.
Miebach stated that the company’s “acceptance footprint” had crossed 100 million sites, more than tripling in the last five years when discussing the payment network’s expansion of acceptance. Digitization, or the shift of cash payments to cards and other internet channels, offers great potential in Latin America and India.
