In the Midst of Recession, Credit Card Companies Report Profit

The recession hasn’t been bad to all business. MasterCard, the second largest international network of credit cards, recently reported a profit of $349 million for the second quarter.

Last year, during the same period, the company announced losses of 747 million dollars. MasterCard’s profit was generated by increasing fees on customer accounts and reducing internal costs.

In contrast to this year’s profit, MasterCard reported a loss of $5.7 billion for the first six months of last year.

This year, the company’s American group expenses decreased by 13%, reaching 722 million dollars. The company also reduced funds allocated for advertising and marketing by 36% and trimmed administrative and staff costs.

Higher commissions and increased use of credit cards by customers increased Mastercard’s revenue by 2.7%, reaching up to 1.3 billion dollars. Value of MasterCard transactions processed increased by 7.9% to 5.6 billion dollars.

As a result of the recession, many consumers are turning to prepaid credit cards.