MasterCard International on Tuesday reported a 14.5 percent rise in purchases on its credit and debit cards in the second quarter while it continued to crack down on online identity theft.
The company, whose client banks are its shareholders, said MasterCard cards issued rose 12.1 percent to 716.3 million in the quarter. Gross dollar volume rose 12.3 percent to $408.4 billion, fuelled by increased cardholder spending around the world.
The value of purchases on MasterCard-branded cards increased 14.5 percent to $290.1 billion.
The value of purchases rose in all of its markets, increasing 13.5 percent in the United States to $146.7 billion, 14.4 percent in Europe to $83.2 billion and 13.2 percent in Asia and the Pacific to $33.8 billion.
The biggest growth was reported in Latin America, where the value of purchases rose 31.9 percent to $10.2 billion.
MasterCard said it had closed down more than 1,900 spoof Web sites globally over the past 13 months as part of its campaign to stop identity theft.
It also uncovered and took offline more than 800 carding and e-commerce sites brokering illegally obtained payment card numbers.