Card use growth lifts Mastercard

Mastercard is eyeing new markets.

Mastercard has seen quarterly profits jump by 70% thanks to increased usage of its products and the weakness of the dollar against the euro.

The world's second largest credit card firm made a profit of $214.9m (£108m) in the first three months of 2007.

The amount spent on Mastercards grew 16% against a year ago, while there was a 19.4% rise in transaction numbers.

Latin America, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region were particular targets for new business, it said.

"There's a US perception that everyone has credit cards, but that's not true in some international markets," said the firm's chief financial officer Chris McWilton.

He said Mastercard might look to buy firms overseas to speed its growth.

Rival's plans

About 5% of Mastercard's total revenue in the period came from a restructuring of its fees to charge customers for making overseas purchases with US-issued cards.

And about 2.5% of its income was attributed to the movement of the euro against the dollar - with the dollar recently hitting an all time low against the European currency.

Mastercard is the world's second-largest credit card organisation, behind rival Visa.

It went public in May 2006 while Visa plans a flotation later this year.