"When you think about what we do, we facilitate payments all around the world, so that provides a really interesting data set across all sectors, across all countries, 220 countries and territories. Last year we're about 160 billion transactions through our network, so it does provide quite a unique view. The past holiday season, 3.9% was the year-over-year growth. So that's a strong holiday season. You think political uncertainty, you think trade alignments and all these kinds of things, but the consumer held up well."
"You have a unique vantage point on consumer activity. So many payments run through your system. From this past holiday season, do you have any observations about consumer spending or customer sentiment? Any sort of emerging trends or lessons you've seen yet? Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today's top business leaders navigating real-time challenges."
Mastercard processes transactions across 220 countries and territories, handling roughly 160 billion transactions last year. The holiday season produced 3.9% year-over-year growth, reflecting resilient consumer spending despite political uncertainty and trade changes. U.S. consumers are increasingly oriented toward affordability, and category-level data shows notable movement in apparel sales. Mastercard evaluates aggregate flows without exposing individual cardholder data. Transaction volumes offer a broad dataset to gauge sentiment and behavioral shifts. Businesses and payment providers face continued pressure to adapt as consumer preferences, payment technologies, and market disruptions evolve into 2026.
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