MA 2026 Q3

Q3 net revenue growth of 14% came in above management's own expectations, driven by broad-based business strength and the pull-forward of services projects and payment network deal signings from Q4 into Q3.

“These revenues were above our expectations, primarily due to the continued strength of our business.”— Ling Hai, Chief Financial Officer

Because services and deal-signing revenue was pulled forward into Q3, management expects a similar offset to reduce Q4 revenue growth versus what would otherwise have occurred.

“there is also a little bit of timing of services projects and the signing of deals moving from Q4 to Q3”— Ling Hai, Chief Financial Officer

Management expects pricing contribution to revenue growth to decelerate ('lap') in Q4 after strong pricing gains in Q3, though it will continue seeking new pricing opportunities.

“we will expect some lapping of the pricing as we head into Q4”— Ling Hai, Chief Financial Officer

Rebates and incentives as a percent of gross assessments are expected to rise in Q4 versus Q3, reflecting continued strong deal momentum that increases contra-revenue going forward.

“we would expect our rebates and incentives as a percent of gross assessments to be higher than Q3”— Ling Hai, Chief Financial Officer

Cross-border card-not-present ex-travel growth decelerated to 15% in Q3 from 20% in Q2, due to a new EU customs fee, timing of retail promotions, and lower crypto purchases versus last year.

“you're seeing Q2 at 20% going to 15%, but 15% is also very strong”— Ling Hai, Chief Financial Officer

Cross-border travel growth showed a slight deceleration in the first three weeks of October due to the timing of holidays, a new softening versus the stable Q2/Q3 level.

“The slight deceleration in cross-border travel was due to timing of holidays.”— Ling Hai, Chief Financial Officer

U.S. switched volume rose sequentially in Q3 on recent commercial wins and improved further in October as the Capital One debit migration began to lap and gas spend increased.

“the sequential increase in the U.S. switched volume was primarily due to recent commercial wins”— Ling Hai, Chief Financial Officer

Mastercard has signed 15 new Essential Debit programs across seven markets this year targeting up to 70 million previously unbanked adults, with early traction from partners like Airtel and Financoop.

“We have signed 15 Essential Debit programs this year across seven markets.”— Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer

Mastercard launched a new co-brand partnership with Beast Industries (MrBeast) targeting the creator economy segment, a first-of-its-kind program aimed at engaging a new generation of consumers and small businesses.

“With more than 1 billion followers across social media, MrBeast is one of the most influential creators in the world.”— Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer

Agentic commerce transactions are newly ramping up at impressive weekly growth rates as AI shopping agents emerge, marking early-stage consumer adoption of a new transaction channel expected to build into the holidays and beyond.

“agentic transactions are ramping up at impressive weekly growth rates”— Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer

Mastercard signed a new broad strategic partnership with OpenAI this quarter covering Agent Pay use and extending into joint services growth and AI transformation, a first-time arrangement of this scope.

“With OpenAI this quarter, we signed a broad strategic partnership that includes the use of Agent Pay and goes well beyond.”— Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer

Mastercard launched its first combined product with newly acquired BVNK, the Global Money Platform, enabling institutions to offer combined fiat and stablecoin accounts, a new capability seeing strong early demand.

“Our first combined Mastercard-BVNK product is the Mastercard Global Money Platform”— Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer

Mastercard is taking a new explicit stance against supporting one-time virtual card numbers as a long-term agentic commerce solution, pushing the ecosystem toward fully tokenized Agent Pay transactions instead.

“We are not supporting solutions that take one-time VCNs out there as you're fronting a transaction.”— Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer

Reports indicate India's government may introduce new fees on the previously free UPI real-time payment scheme, a shift management welcomes as it could narrow UPI's pricing advantage over card networks.

“the owners of UPI are considering having some additional fees in there”— Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer

The BVNK acquisition closed between the last earnings call and this one, with management noting a strong start and rapid integration, including native digital-asset talent and compliance infrastructure now embedded at Mastercard.

“BVNK closed between the last call and this call.”— Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer

Cross-border flows showed a regional mix shift this year, with negative impact from the Middle East/GCC conflict partly offset by new benefit from increased outbound spend from Venezuela.

“we saw some negative impact out of the Middle East, the GCC countries. We then see this benefit in terms of outbound from Venezuela.”— Ling Hai, Chief Financial Officer