MasterCard Profit Jumps 31%, Beating Views
Author: Melissa Korn</br></br>NEW YORK--MasterCard Inc.'s second-quarter profit jumped 31%, beating analysts' expectations, as higher consumer spending in Latin America, Europe and Asia boosted the top line.</br></br>Though sales of discretionary items in the U.S. have slumped in recent months, the company said spending in Europe hasn't been hurt by macroeconomic uncertainty, and Asia-Pacific and Latin America continue to expand by double digits on a percentage basis.</br></br>Still, President and Chief Executive Ajay Banga said during a conference call on Tuesday that there could be "some tempering" in topline growth in the second half of the year compared with the 9.7% revenue increase the company posted for the six months through June, citing an uneven pace of economic recovery, especially in the U.S., as well as tough comparisons to strong year-ago figures.</br></br>Roll-offs of some debit portfolios will continue to damp processed-transaction results as well, though MasterCard expects the effects of those terminated contracts to wane after the third quarter.