9:35 AM New York – MasterCard revenue rises 29% and earnings surged 108%.

MasterCard revenue in the first quarter rose 29.2% to $1.18 billion compared to $915 million a year ago. Currency gains added 5.1% to the revenue rise in the quarter.

First quarter net income of $398 million or $3.01 per share or $446 million or $3.38 per share compared to $214 million or $1.58 per share.

Net income also incorporates after-tax gains of $56 million, or $0.42 per share on a diluted basis, from the remaining sales of the company's investment in Redecard S.A. in Brazil.

Worldwide purchase volume during the quarter rose 15.0%, on a local currency basis, versus the first quarter of 2007, to $453 billion, driven by increased cardholder spending on a growing number of MasterCard cards.

At the end of the first quarter, 935 million new MasterCard branded cards were issued by the banks and other financial institutions an increase of 12.1% from a year ago.

Robert W. Selander, MasterCard president and chief executive officer said, “Regions outside the U.S., such as Latin America and South Asia, Middle East and Africa, are driving significant growth, and cross-border volumes remain healthy as cardholders continue to travel and prefer the use of electronic over paper- based forms of payment.

MasterCard continues to see growth in the U.S. region despite continued economic uncertainty.”

During the first quarter, approximately 1.5 million shares of Class A common stock had been repurchased at a cost of $294 million. As of April 29, 2008, the company repurchased approximately 557,000 additional shares of its Class A common stock at a cost of $129 million, for a total of $1.02 billion of the approved $1.25 billion completed.

Purchase volume, not counting other transactions such as cash back or money transfers, in Asia Pacific rose 22% to $62 billion, in Canada increased 13% to $20 billion, in Europe gained 18% to $136 billion, in the United States rose 10.3% to $206 billion, and in South America soared 22% to $22 billion and in South Asia and Middle East increased 27% to 6 billion.

Worldwide purchase volume increased 15% to $453 billion and to 6.14 billion transactions and gross dollar volume increased 14% to $611 billion.

Gross dollar volume in local currencies rose 19% to $89 billion in Asia Pacific region and increased 13% to $24 billion in Canada, by 17.4% to $183 billion in Europe, by 20.7% to $44 billion in Latin America, by 31.3% to $12 billion in South Asia, Middle East and Africa and by 9% to $259 billion in the U.S.

MasterCard stock (MA: chart) opened up $23.07 or 9.51% to $265.57.