UPDATE: This article includes comments from executives during the company’s earnings call.

Mastercard is confident that the strength of consumers and businesses will hold up despite economic challenges, creating momentum that will extend through 2025.

Commercial spending in the third quarter increased 11% year-over-year on a currency-neutral basis, which was higher than the growth in consumer spending across the Mastercards network, the card network reported Thursday. Healthy spending, coupled with increased payment volume and focus on value-added services, boosted revenue in the quarter ended September 30.

“Nothing scary here,” Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said Thursday morning on a call with analysts. “THE macroeconomic environment remains favorable and continues to support the strength of consumer spending. The labor market has remained strong, although slightly below historically tight levels, and inflation has moderated, although at different levels, across categories and countries.

Mastercard’s third-quarter revenue rose 13% to $7.4 billion, up from $6.5 billion a year ago and above the $7.3 billion analysts expected , according to S&P Capital IQ.

Net income rose to $3.3 billion, or $3.53 per share, compared with $3.2 billion, or $3.39 per share, a year earlier. Analysts expected $3.3 billion, or $3.64 per share. Total operating expenses increased 25% in the quarter, including a restructuring charge and litigation provisions.

Adjusted earnings came in at $3.89 per share, above analyst estimates of $3.75 per share according to S&P Capital IQ.

Payment network revenues jumped 10%, with gross dollar volume increasing 10% and cross-border volume increasing 17% on a local currency basis. Transferred transactions increased by 11%.

Notably, MasterCard Move, the company’s real-time cross-border payments solution, saw a 40% increase in the third quarter, Miebach said. Mastercard signed this month a global payments partnership with Citigroup which allows the mega-bank to connect to its Mastercard Move product to transfer money domestically and cross-border to bank accounts, prepaid debit cards, mobile wallets and cash hotspots in just a few seconds.

Value-added services revenue increased 18%, primarily driven by growth in “underlying key drivers,” strong demand for consulting and marketing services, and scaling of fraud, security, identity and authentication solutions, Mastercard said.

“We are investing in new products to further expand our addressable market and meet the needs of our customers,” Miebach said on the call, highlighting planned acquisitions of Recorded Future, a cybersecurity company he bought in September For $2.7 billionand Minna Technologies, a subscription information company.

“Subscriptions are everywhere: delivery, entertainment, shopping, software, healthcare and much more. They play an important role in people’s lives and are supported and contribute to the development of digital payments,” Miebach said. “This comes with a growing demand for more transparency and control from consumers as well as regulators. This is why we agreed to acquire Minna Technologies; their services independent of payment systems go beyond information. »

Mastercard CFO Sachin Mehra was positive about the company’s growth prospects for the next quarter, but executives declined to comment on its 2025 outlook until the investor day, which will take place next month. .

Net revenue growth is expected to be around 15% on a currency-neutral basis, excluding acquisitions, according to Mehra, adding that acquisitions are expected to have minimal impact on this growth rate. From an operating expense perspective, Mastercard expects operating expense growth to be in the high double-digit range from a year ago.

The results are comparable to rival Visa’s third quarter results and follow a a strong second quarterwhich was somewhat overshadowed by an interchange fee deal with merchants that collapsed when a the federal judge blocked it.

Mastercard also said last quarter that it planned to lay off around 3% of its staff in September, despite reporting results that beat analysts’ estimates and being optimistic about consumer spending. Executives made no mention of the layoffs during the call.

Mastercard was busy in the third quarter. Payment card processor named in July more partners in his push for open banking system with the addition of nine international fintech startups to its Start Path Open Banking and Embedded Finance accelerator program.

In August, the company in partnership with the Medical Tourism Association providing virtual card technology to arrange care, book travel and make payments