Mastercard Incorporated

Q2 2026 non-GAAP currency-neutral net revenue increased 12% year over year. Adjusted net income increased 16%, and EPS increased 19% to $5.04, including a $0.14 contribution from share repurchases. Operating income rose 14%, while operating expenses increased 10%. On the operating side, worldwide GDV grew 8%, U.S. GDV grew 6%, outside-the-U.S. GDV grew 9%, cross-border volume grew 12%, switched transactions grew 9%, and commercial debit and credit volumes grew 12%. Contactless penetration reached 80% of in-person switched purchase transactions, and token penetration was over 40% of all switched transactions. For Q3 2026, Mastercard expects net revenue growth at the high end of the low-double-digit range on a currency-neutral basis excluding inorganic activity, with about a 0.5 ppt FX headwind; operating expense growth is expected in the low-double-digit range, with a 0.5 ppt inorganic headwind and 0% to 0.5 ppt FX tailwind. For full-year 2026, Mastercard expects net revenue growth at the high end of the low-double-digit range, now expected to be higher within that range than prior expectations due to stronger first-half performance, and operating expense growth to remain in the low-double-digit range. Other income and expense is expected to be about $125 million in Q3, and the non-GAAP tax rate is expected to be 20% to 21% in both Q3 and Q4.

Michael Miebach said Mastercard is seeing another strong quarter because of disciplined execution, a supportive macro backdrop, and a strategy centered on consumer payments, commercial/new payment flows, and value-added services. He emphasized the company’s “virtuous cycle” of more transactions feeding more data, more services, and more value for customers, and pointed to wins in issuing, switching, commercial payments, security, and emerging areas like agentic commerce and stablecoins. His tone was confident and expansive, with repeated emphasis that Mastercard is “winning” and has “significant runway” across its core businesses and newer opportunities.

Sachin Mehra detailed the quarter’s financial performance: revenue up 12%, operating expenses up 10%, operating income up 14%, net income up 16%, and EPS up 19% to $5.04. He also cited $4.9 billion of stock repurchases during the quarter and about $700 million more through July 27, 2026. On the business drivers, he said payment network revenue rose 8% and VAS revenue rose 18%, while global GDV rose 8%, cross-border volume 12%, and switched transactions 9%. He framed the outlook as still healthy, noted the Middle East impact moderated in Q2, and guided Q3 and full-year revenue growth to the high end of the low-double-digit range, with operating expenses also in the low-double-digit range and a $125 million Q3 other income/expense expense driven mainly by incremental interest from June bond issuance.

Analysts focused on stablecoins versus agentic commerce, cross-border acceleration, domestic switching, cyber demand in VAS, Europe growth, U.S. spending breadth, and the mix of VAS revenue. Management said cards can still prevail in agentic commerce because they provide reach, predictable experiences, tokenization, and dispute protections, while machine-to-machine payments may use stablecoins or other settlement rails; Mastercard sees stablecoins as additive, not a replacement. On cross-border, management attributed the step-up partly to lower Middle East disruption and stronger Venezuela-related card-not-present spending, not clearly to the World Cup. On Europe, management said growth is being lapped against prior portfolio wins and that the company is being selective on pricing and economics, preferring profitable volume over volume for its own sake.