July 31 (Reuters) - Mastercard ( MA ) surpassed Wall

Street estimates for second-quarter profit on Thursday, driven

by strong consumer spending on travel and leisure.

A mix of higher inflation, interest rate pressures and

tariff uncertainty has done little to slow American travelers

and shoppers so far, offering a boost to payments firms and big

banks alike in the first half of 2025.

Payments firms are closely tied to everyday consumer

behavior, and most transactions - whether for groceries, fuel,

or fewer discretionary items - still flow through the same cards

and platforms, helping sustain volume, despite some shoppers

paring back on non-essential spending.

Gross dollar volume - the total value of transactions

processed on Mastercard's ( MA ) platform - rose 9% in the quarter.

Cross-border volume, which tracks spending on cards outside

their country of issue, jumped 15%, pointing to still strong

consumer appetite for travel and leisure.

The company wrapped up the earnings season for Wall Street's

biggest payments processors. Rival Visa posted

market-beating results earlier this week, while American Express ( AXP )

also managed to surpass Wall Street's expectations.

Though analysts caution the momentum may not last if

elevated interest rates and rising prices from tariffs begin to

strain household budgets, that pressure has yet to show up.

In recent years, Mastercard ( MA ) has also diversified its

business by expanding into value-added services such as threat

intelligence and fraud prevention. Revenue from these services

rose 22% on a currency-neutral basis in the quarter.

It posted an adjusted profit of $4.15 per share for the

three months ended June 30. That compares with Wall Street

estimates of $4.03 per share, according to data compiled by

LSEG.

Mastercard's ( MA ) net revenue jumped 17% on a reported basis to

$8.1 billion. It beat estimates of $7.97 billion.

Shares of the payments giant were up 1.4% before the bell.