The news: Mastercard and Visa reported strong revenue growth in their most recent quarters.

• Visa’s net revenues rose 14% YoY in its fiscal year Q3 (ended June 30, 2025).
• Mastercard’s net revenues for the period rose 17% YoY.

Both payment networks’ results outstripped analysts’ expectations, per Yahoo Finance:

• Visa’s adjusted earnings per share (EPS) clocked in at $2.98, beating Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.86.
• Mastercard’s EPS sat at $4.15, eclipsing its anticipated $4.03.

Volume surge: 

• Visa’s total payment volume growth increased 8%.
• Mastercard’s total payment volume grew 6% to $443.5 billion.

Both networks also disclosed robust cross-border payment volume.

• Visa cross-border volume total increased 12% YoY.
• Mastercard cross-border transactions grew 15%.

Bird’s eye view: In addition to strong consumer spending, Visa and Mastercard credited tech investments and partnerships for their strong quarters. 

• Visa CEO Ryan McInerney wants to train Visa’s focus on “innovation and product development in dynamic areas like AI and stablecoins” to drive Visa’s operations forward.
• Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach credited the company’s exclusive tie-up with American Airlines and innovations like Mastercard Collection and Mastercard Agent Pay as drivers of its success for the quarter.

Our take: Both Visa and Mastercard understand that they need to innovate to keep their infrastructure competitive in light of the explosion of alternative payment rails—most recently stablecoin initiatives, made possible by the recent passage of the Genius Act. 

• Visa this week expanded its settlement platform to accommodate more stablecoins and blockchains for transaction settlements for acquirers and issuers. 
• Mastercard this month joined Paxos’ Global Dollar Network to enable USDC, USDG, PYUSD, and FIUSD across its network. It’s also powering new initiatives like Mastercard Move, a cross-border payments solution.

We anticipate more integrations from both providers as they build their networks for a potentially less card-centric digital payment ecosystem. 

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