MasterCard Q1 profit up 25%

Purchase volume,the amount people spent on debit and credit cards with MasterCard logos,rose 17 per cent worldwide.

Ajay Banga,MasterCard’s chief executive officer,said it was the company’s highest quarterly growth rate since its IPO.

In the last couple of years,MasterCard Inc. has focused on expanding its international business by acquiring an international card processing system called DataCash and a global prepaid travel card manager called Access Prepaid Worldwide.

Both of those acquisitions have paid off in the quarter,contributing to 25 per cent profit growth,said Banga.

During the first quarter of 2012,MasterCard repurchased 652,500 shares at a cost of approximately USD 248 million.

The company said it is authorised to repurchase another USD 556 million worth of stock.

Mastercard Inc. says it increased rebates and incentives,a common practice in the industry where processors offer banks and other issuers breaks to persuade them to switch the logos on the cards they offer their customers.

In the quarter costs related to such incentives grew 24 per cent,taking a bite out of the company’s quarterly revenue. Analysts don’t like to see too much of an increase in these costs because it weakens results.

In pre-market trading,MasterCard’s stock fell just under 1 per cent to USD 452.