(Reuters) – Mastercard Inc reported a jump in second-quarter profit on Thursday as a surge in cross-border spending sparked by this year’s travel boom more than offset higher costs.
Profit for the three months ended June 30 was $2.3 billion, or $2.34 per share, compared with $2.1 billion, or $2.08 per share, a year earlier.
Bottled-up demand and the easing of COVID-19 curbs have led to the strongest summer travel season since the start of the pandemic, a boon for companies like Mastercard and Visa Inc that can charge more for overseas transactions.
Mastercard said cross-border volumes jumped 58% on a local currency basis in the quarter.
While spending at card companies has stayed strong, worries that an economic slowdown was approaching have mounted in recent weeks after companies including Walmart Inc pointed to a shift away from big-ticket items to groceries among consumers.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)
