General Commentary & Highlights
- Visa and MasterCard both delivered another year of strong performance, driven by sustained growth in consumer spending and continued expansion in cross-border volumes and value-added services.
- Cross-border remains a key growth driver, but expansion is slowing. Visa's growth fell from 33% (2022) to 15% (2024), and Mastercard's from 45% to 18%, marking two years of growth deceleration. Still, both firms see cross-border as a core growth engine.
- Visa and Mastercard card counts rose 7% and 8%, consistent with last year. However, Visa’s average spend per card fell 2%, while Mastercard’s grew 1% from Dec. ’23–’24.
- Visa and Mastercard revenue rose 10% and 12% Y/Y. However, Visa’s international transaction growth slowed from 14% to 10%, and Mastercard’s cross-border growth fell from 27% to 21% (’22–’24).
- Mastercard’s client incentives outpaced year-over-year net revenue growth (7% vs. 4%), while Visa’s grew 5% year-over-year, aligning with net revenue.
- Strategic partnerships remained a core focus for both companies, though the emphasis shifted. Visa shifted focus to banks (46% of mentions), while Mastercard balanced banks and fintechs (40% each), reversing last year’s trends.
- Visa and Mastercard prioritized fraud prevention in 2024, acquiring Featurespace and Recorded Future, respectively.
- Visa also launched Visa Protect, its AI-powered fraud detection model for A2A payments. This is a shift from 2023 where Visa prioritized payment processing investments (Prosa and Pismo) and A2A expansion (Form3), while Mastercard diversified investments across money transfers, open banking, and cybersecurity.
Please do not hesitate to contact Rom Mascetti at Rom@FlagshipAP.com or Sal LoBiondo Sal@FlagshipAP.com with comments or questions.