Earnings Review: A consistent approach for today’s needs and tomorrow’s opportunities

It seems like 2019 was a while ago, but in reality it’s not that long. Yes, much has happened in that time, including navigating a global pandemic and many other geopolitical challenges. As I look back, two things have been clear in these first five years as Mastercard’s chief financial officer –  one, it’s key to try to control only the things you can, and two, have a plan for everything else.

These two things have helped Mastercard navigate the challenges of the past few years while keeping us on the path to maximize the opportunities in front of us. So how does it play out? It comes down to having the right focus, the right strategy and the right people in the right roles. With the recent evolution of our executive leadership team, we continue to take steps to reinforce each of these areas.

It’s a balance of delivering today and investing for the long term. I believe a good illustration of that is the report of our first quarter financial performance today. It was a strong quarter, both in terms of revenue and earnings growth. You can see the details in our filings.

In addition, our business fundamentals remain strong and our diversified business model and momentum with customers position us well for the opportunities ahead.

This is all underpinned by healthy consumer spending, the secular shift to digital forms of payment and strong demand across our value-added services and solutions offerings. So, all things considered, we remain positive about the growth outlook.

What is it about the past quarter that reinforces how Mastercard will look to maximize the opportunities ahead? There are a few examples that I would note:

Shift to digital: This is a trend that has only accelerated over the past five years. The investments that we have made continue to yield dividends in terms of competitiveness and a better user experience. It’s in contactless — a simple, fast and secure way to pay and go. Today contactless is used in more than two of every three in-person switched purchase transactions. The seamless and safe experience we all benefit from when using digital wallets and when shopping online is enabled by the token standards that we created and cultivated over the past decade.

Focus on growing needs: We are looking to grow in new flows by making sure we are connected to the right partners and have the right solutions for commercial customers and to make remittances and disbursements even more valuable. Part of that led to us combining our domestic and international money movement capabilities into one offering – Mastercard Move.

Adding value beyond the transaction: We have long been focused on ensuring we have a diverse offering to strengthen what we can offer customers. Today, these capabilities are best in class, ranging from data analytics and consulting to fraud protection to identity and open banking. Leveraging these services, our teams are leaning into the relationships to understand the evolving needs of our customers so that we can continue to innovate with purpose, win in payments, deliver new services and make them more valuable to their customers.

A focus on each of these areas helps to ensure that we create value in the short, medium and long term. This is the promise that we have made and the promise we work hard to deliver on each day.