US bank gift card

MasterCard Inc., benefiting from a
surge in consumers' use of credit and debit cards, said first-
quarter profit climbed 70 percent to a record, sending the stock
to its biggest gain this year.

Net income rose to $214.9 million, or $1.57 a share, from
$126.7 million, or 94 cents, a year earlier, the Purchase, New
York-based company said in a statement. Profit at MasterCard, the
No. 2 card network behind Visa International Inc., beat the $1.16
average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Transactions jumped 19 percent as consumers continued to
switch to credit and debit cards from cash and checks.
MasterCard's revenue rose 24 percent, getting a lift from a March
increase in U.S. retail sales that was the biggest in three
months. Visa plans an IPO early next year to capitalize on
consumers' growing preference for credit over cash.

``This was a very strong quarter,'' analyst Craig Maurer at
Calyon Securities, the investment-banking arm of Credit Agricole
SA, said in an interview. ``They had great revenue, great
transaction growth, great expense control.''

Revenue rose to $915.1 million, while expenses climbed 8.2
percent to $601.2 million on costs to hire more workers and
defend against lawsuits.

Shares of the company advanced $12.28, or 11 percent, to
$127.13 at 11:43 a.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock
Exchange, the biggest gain in six months. They've more than
tripled since first being offered at $39 in May 2006.

Payment Shift

MasterCard use is growing most rapidly in developing
countries such as India, China and Brazil, Chief Financial
Officer Chris McWilton said on a conference call with analysts
and investors.

``I think a lot of us who live in the U.S. sort of get
accustomed to the fact that everybody has credit cards,''
McWilton said. ``But there are large parts of the world where
cash is still dominant.''

MasterCard credit- and debit-card spending increased 16
percent to $509 billion on a local-currency basis, and
transactions jumped to 4.2 billion, the company said.

Consumers' use of cash and checks in the U.S. fell to 50
percent of all payments in 2005 from 77 percent in 1995, while
card use rose to 40 percent from around 21 percent, analyst
Timothy Willi of A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. wrote in a note to
clients this week, citing data from the Nilson Report in Oxnard,
California.

Nilson estimates that by 2010, card-based payments will
account for about 56 percent of consumer payments, while cash and
checks will drop to 29 percent. Card use has been growing faster
than consumer spending.

Ads and Marketing

MasterCard's advertising and market-development expenses
dropped to $178.5 million from $182.7 million a year earlier.
Maurer at Calyon said American Express Co., which reported a 21
percent profit increase on April 19, has also cut back on
marketing.

``The card companies see limited opportunities to drive any
incremental business in the current market,'' Maurer said.

MasterCard expects to spend more on advertising and
marketing in coming quarters, when competitors will be
``distracted,'' McWilton said. In addition to Visa's planned IPO,
Morgan Stanley said it will spin off Discover Card Services, the
fourth-largest card network, later this year.

``The revenue growth does not look sustainable'' if ad
spending goes up, said Joseph Dickerson, an analyst at Atlantic
Equities LLP in London.

Lawsuit `Pressure'

Shares of MasterCard slid 9.7 percent on Feb. 9, the biggest
drop since the IPO, after Chief Executive Officer Robert Selander
declined on a conference call with analysts to forecast continued
growth in profit margins.

A lawsuit accusing MasterCard of anticompetitive behavior,
brought by American Express and Discover, ``could put downward
pressure on shares,'' as could Visa's public stock offering,
according to analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The lawsuit is scheduled for trial in federal court next
year.

MasterCard in April 2006 began charging card issuers for all
foreign transactions using U.S.-issued cards. It used to assess a
fee only if it converted the related currency to U.S. dollars.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Joseph N. DiStefano in New York at
.