Annual CEO Letter

Growth in motion

April 28, 2025 | by michael miebach

The world today – and the future we are building – is dynamic and demanding, defined by rapid innovation, and decidedly digital.

For years, Mastercard has consistently shown that we are a resilient organization. Our business model is robust. Both qualities have served us well in the fluid environment the world has found itself in over several years. We control the elements we can to navigate the uncertainties of today. That helps position us to seize every opportunity, without taking our eyes off the horizon. In other words, we are built for this moment.

That sets the stage for our continued aspirations. Powering economies and empowering people. Simple words that capture the vision driving our strong and steady progress.

Our strategy is a proven and powerful guide. Our three strategic priority areas – consumer payments, commercial and new payments flows, and our services and other solutions – feed a virtuous cycle that drives our growth. And our approach to put the customer at the center of all we do makes Mastercard a valued partner in every region. This approach has delivered a clear impact. After all, when our customers and the communities where we operate succeed and grow, that’s when Mastercard wins.

Many of you reading this letter will have experienced our commitment to strengthening the digital economy firsthand. It might be through a simpler way to check out when shopping online or seamlessly sending money to someone on the other side of the world. You might rely on the peace of mind that comes from an unauthorized charge wiped off your account or protection against someone trying to access your data.

This is the work our teams do each day. They are learning, developing and testing how new technologies address evolving needs. That helps position us to create future standards for our more secure, more inclusive digital future.

Let’s put that in real terms. Think back – contactless payments were largely a novelty in the early 2000s. Today, Tap and Go represents approximately 70% of all in-person purchase transactions. We are building on that technology to unlock new use cases with your device – from sending money to your friends or family to verifying a large purchase. And it all happens with a simple tap. Recently, I tapped my Mastercard to walk through a turnstile of the Beijing metro system. That’s the same frictionless mobility expected by commuters in London, New York and cities worldwide.

Many people today walk out of the house carrying only their keys and a mobile phone. Why? Because they know the card they loaded into a digital wallet can be used almost anywhere they want to pay without having to worry about losing everything if their phone or wallet gets lost or stolen. That confidence and convenience is possible because of the token technology we created to store account information without giving anyone access to the account itself. Now, in just 10 years, this technology has become the foundation to secure today’s digital economy, whether it be through online payments or in-car commerce. And we see the potential to open the door to the next generation of commerce by replacing passwords and entry of account information through technology like passkeys that harness the security and ease of biometric authentication. That’s growth in motion.

2024: Another strong year

As I look back at the past year, it’s clear 2024 was a year where nothing stood still. It brought political shifts around the globe, continuing geopolitical challenges and the rapid advancement of technologies like artificial intelligence. At the same time, a strong and resilient consumer continued to spend, despite some economic uncertainty and fluidity. In this environment, our diversified and resilient business model delivered four quarters of strong growth. We drove those results through the launch of new solutions that raised the bar for our industry and strengthened our global reputation for trust and security.

Our global payments network now includes 3.5 billion cards and approximately 150 million acceptance locations in more than 220 countries and territories. The changes in people’s shopping behaviors to using apps beyond traditional in-store and online merchants have also opened up opportunities to support 250 million-plus additional sellers within marketplaces like food-delivery services and staged wallets. In 2024, we switched more than 159 billion transactions – each one a connection bringing people together with speed, security and simplicity.

We continued to strengthen the always-on digital ecosystem, opening our state-of-the-art Tech Hub in Pune, India, and our Cyber Security Resilience Center in Waterloo, Belgium. We offered new ways to digitize payments for small and medium enterprises, unlocking growth in a segment that can too often fall through the cracks. We made it easier and more secure to make cross-border payments and send remittances with Mastercard Move, which grew transactions 40% year-over-year in just the fourth quarter of last year.

We also brought our joint venture in China to fruition, switching our first domestic transactions in May. We’re already delivering value for Chinese consumers and businesses, and that puts Mastercard in the unique position to become the most widely accepted way to pay in the world.

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Cybersecurity

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Cross-border

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With creativity and foresight, our team is creating meaningful solutions in the payment and beyond. In 2024, we further extended our portfolio of services with two acquisitions. Recorded Future is a global provider of threat intelligence software, and Minna Technologies delivers subscription management technology. Both are now part of the value customers can receive by working with Mastercard.

We unlocked new Priceless experiences for Mastercard cardholders, bringing people closer to the things they love through our brand sponsorships. Our partnership with McLaren’s Formula 1 team is delivering one of the fastest-growing fandoms into the action, both on and off the track.

We achieved all this while transforming Mastercard behind the scenes, realigning our internal structure to better execute on our strategy and provide a stronger experience for our customers.

Given all this, I’m particularly proud that we closed out the year being named one of the five best managed companies in the world by the Wall Street Journal, among many awards and recognitions.

A virtuous cycle, powering our momentum

Customers choose Mastercard for the unmatched breadth and depth of our services that add layers of value – beyond the transaction.

Customers choose Mastercard for the unmatched breadth and depth of our services that add layers of value – beyond the transaction. We help our customers take their businesses to the next level with security, fraud protection, insights and more. We are continually raising the bar for ourselves to make the industry and digital environment stronger. Take, for example, our long-standing integration of artificial intelligence into our services. Now we have added generative AI technology into our Decision Intelligence product to look at the relationships between hundreds of millions of data points in real-time to determine if a transaction is valid. It’s enabling us to detect compromised cards twice as fast. And with consumers increasingly expecting products and services tailored to their individual preferences, our supercharged insights help our customers personalize their offerings and give them the tools for success.

Mastercard’s commitment to doing well by doing good remains a central pillar of our work. Bringing more people in more places into the digital economy, and giving people everywhere the power to choose how they pay, are a foundation of our strategy. That is the secular shift in action. Using digital financial tools and services improves financial health, spurs economic activity, lifts vulnerable people, demonstrates our commitment to the communities where we work – and it drives growth for our company.

The strength of our strategy continues to power our momentum in 2025.

More payments create more data. More data means more insights. Those insights improve our services, helping our customers make better decisions. More services open more opportunities to bring more payments into our network. Taken together, this is the virtuous cycle that drives our growth. But in our competitive industry, with an increasingly diverse field of players, we are working harder than ever to differentiate ourselves.

People and businesses choose Mastercard for a reason. We promise a guaranteed way to pay and be paid supported by enhanced security, peace of mind and protection against fraud.

Being a consistent, reliable partner in all situations strengthens the trust in Mastercard. That’s the foundation of the value we deliver, but we never stop pushing forward. We aim to stay ahead of the pack and continually look for what’s next. We are a strategic partner for our customers, committed to solving existing challenges and finding new opportunities. Their priorities are our priorities. And that also benefits people and businesses.

We bring together local expertise with the reach of Mastercard’s network and our global insights. Being both local and global allows us to adapt and scale solutions across geographies and see connections that move the entire industry forward.

Consider our drive to expand in consumer payments. We have reimagined the online checkout experience by bringing together tokenization with one-click checkout options and payment passkeys to make it easier and more secure for people to buy online. By doing so, we are able to phase out 16-digit account numbers, paving the way for a future where numberless cards are the default. As another way to meet the needs of today’s digitally native consumers, we launched Mastercard One Credential to give people the flexibility to choose prepaid, debit, credit or installment payments all in a single, digitally-connected credential.

We are also building the instant economy of the future. The reliability of our technology and systems has been a hallmark of Mastercard for decades. Now, in South Africa, our redesigned network delivers switching technology with real-time capabilities, including near-instant clearing and settlement. South African merchants now access their funds from card purchases the same day, helping them compete in a fast-paced environment. This is a game-changing upgrade to our technology that we will scale to more markets over time.

We are pursuing the enormous opportunity in commercial and new payment flows by revolutionizing business payments and pushing further into underpenetrated areas like health care and housing. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the global economy, yet commercial payments are still largely paper-based and cumbersome to process. Business owners deserve the same built-in ease and safety in their payments that they have in their personal lives. Think of our industry-leading virtual card offering. These temporary card numbers can be assigned to specific types of transactions for a business, activated for limited time windows, and integrated into accounting and expense management systems. Simple, secure and easy to use. That should be the baseline.

Success powered by our people

We operate in every region of the world and facilitate connections that span the globe. Every day, we bring together more than 35,000 employees – all with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives – into One Mastercard. We are as diverse as the markets and geographies we serve, and our commitment to our team is that everyone has the opportunity to grow and succeed at Mastercard. We come together to achieve our shared goals. Innovation, ownership and inclusion are baked into our culture at every level. That is how we deliver the strongest and best outcomes for our customers and our business, year after year.

Our People

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From mops to megabytes

The journey from high school student filled with self-doubt to IT professional has been amazing, and I’m proud of the company I work for and the type of work I do every day. I never thought I would get this far, and it feels like a dream I haven’t woken from yet.

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A future of possibility

In shaping the future of payments, speed will be the expectation as we realize the full potential of real-time capabilities – for cards and all digital payments. Harder-to-hack biometric authentication will make payments frictionless and more secure than ever. AI agents will help answer consumers’ demand for unprecedented personalization, automation and protection. But none of this can happen without trust.

Trust is why people turn to Mastercard. Trust drives use. Use creates scale. Scale delivers sustainable growth, building trust in more places and kicking off a virtuous cycle of its own.

With our leading-edge technology and our strong values guiding us, Mastercard is well-positioned to remain a dynamic force building a digital economy that works for everyone and makes life better for us all. That is true no matter what goes on in the world around us. Our intersecting circles and unique sonic branding are recognized and respected all over the world. We dream big and refuse to be bound by the past. We connect people to their passions and help reinforce their purpose. Put together, that creates an infinite loop of tremendous possibility. Nothing could be more Priceless than that.

Trust is why people turn to Mastercard

I want to thank all of you for being part of the Mastercard community. From our customers, partners and investors to our Board of Directors and our talented global team who make Mastercard work, we are creating the growth that drives us forward.

I am excited for all that we will achieve together. Thank you for your support and for entrusting us with this great responsibility.

Michael Miebach
CEO, Mastercard

Annual CEO Letter

Customers choose Mastercard for the unmatched breadth and depth of our services that add layers of value – beyond the transaction.

Trust is why people turn to Mastercard

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