October 29, 2015/MasterCard

This morning, we announced our third-quarter results. We are pleased with the results, reinforcing that our business continues to perform well, even with an uncertain economy.

On an FX-adjusted basis, our net income was up 9% and earnings per diluted share were up 11%, both excluding a special item related to the termination of our U.S. defined benefit pension program.

Part of today’s call reinforced comments and guidance we offered at our Investor Day last month. As October comes to a close, many of us start to look toward the holidays and a new year. With that change in calendar also comes a new set of performance objectives for the next three years. For those of you interested, they’re available at our Investor Relations website.

All of this reflects a focus on innovation and value that supports our customers and cardholders, while delivering bottom line results. Some of the highlights shared during the call include:

Co-Brands – As we’ve noted on several occasions, the co-brand space is a competitive one. Since we began a tighter focus on that part of the business a few years ago, we have won over 40 co-brand deals in the U.S. alone – renewals, flips from competitors, and new entrants.

The common point in each of these relationships is additional value to the cardholder, like rewards, offers and the latest in safety and security. This morning’s call highlighted just a few of the examples of our momentum in the co-brand space – JetBlue (U.S.), CITS (China), Coles (Australia) and Aeroflot (Russia).

Security – At the beginning of the month, the U.S. had a major milestone in its move to chip cards. The work to date has been impressive, with 60 percent of cards and approximately 40 percent of terminals expected to be chip capable by the end of the year.

These efforts, combined with advancements in biometrics – like selfie pay – and tokens are setting the stage for greater security and functionality.

Convenience – For a couple of years, Ed McLaughlin, our chief emerging payments officer, has talked about the future ability of any device becoming a commerce device. It was this month that we helped bring the future a little closer. First was our announcement that MasterCard corporate cards are now supported by our tokenization efforts. That makes it possible for all of our cards to be digitized and secured into any mobile and online wallet – including our own MasterPass.

And, earlier this week, we launched a program that activates our technology as the foundation for new, innovative payment services. Through our token program, secure payments can now be made from everyday “things” like key fobs, rings, dresses and more.

All of these points together reinforce that the fundamentals of our business are strong, we’re performing well and we have continued momentum across the globe on the things that matter to merchants, issuers and consumers. Learn more about our products and services on this site and join us for our next quarterly update.