Mastercard CFO Sees Resilient Spending Fueling Growth in Services, Stablecoins and UAE Deal

Mastercard expects resilient spending on travel, dining, entertainment, cross-border payments and emerging categories such as AI subscriptions, crypto purchases and digital-wallet funding to support growth despite geopolitical uncertainty.

Services now generate nearly 40% of Mastercard’s revenue, with growth opportunities in cybersecurity, fraud prevention, data and consulting.

The UAE domestic-switch agreement could allow Mastercard to process nearly all UAE debit transactions while providing the underlying technology and security services.

The acquisition of BVNK strengthens Mastercard’s stablecoin capabilities, including interoperability and white-label wallets, with potential applications in business payments, remittances, person-to-person transfers and tokenized assets.

Mastercard CFO Ling Hai said the company remains focused on top-line growth, supported by consumer spending resilience, cross-border travel and non-travel payments, services expansion, and targeted acquisitions.

Speaking at a conference in his first month as CFO, Hai said his capital-allocation priorities are to invest in organic growth, pursue acquisitions that add capabilities or speed to market, maintain a strong balance sheet and positive operating leverage, and return excess capital to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.

Hai, who has spent 17 years at Mastercard in management roles across Greater China, Europe, Asia and international markets, said his operational background provides insight into the factors that shape the company’s financial results.

Hai said the macroeconomic environment remains supportive of both consumer and business spending.

He pointed to continued U.S. spending on travel, movies, dining and entertainment, while describing travel demand as broad-based across both affluent and mass-market consumers.

While the war in the Middle East has created uncertainty and affected regional travel patterns, Hai said Mastercard’s diversification across markets, payment flows and revenue sources helps support resilience.

He said operating metrics during the first four weeks of August were in line with the first four weeks of July, including cross-border travel and non-travel activity.

On cross-border spending, Hai said Mastercard divides activity into travel and card-not-present, excluding travel.

He said the Middle East conflict had a negative impact on inbound and outbound travel in April, but the year-to-date effect has been less negative than the company expected.

Outbound travel recovery continued through the second and third quarters, he said.

Travelers have adjusted destinations rather than stopped traveling, according to Hai.

He cited Canadians traveling less to the U.S. and more to Europe, as well as Europeans traveling to Asia outside the UEFA season.

Non-travel cross-border activity includes traditional e-commerce, recurring subscriptions, digital assets and digital-wallet funding.

Hai said emerging spending categories, including AI-platform subscriptions, crypto purchases and transfers into wallets such as Revolut and Wise, are contributing to growth.

He also cited crypto-related spending from Venezuela after U.S. dollars became available to consumers there.

Hai said Mastercard sees continued opportunity to convert cash transactions into digital payments, including in developed markets.

He noted that cash rem...