[R]10:30AM New York – MasterCard earnings soar 63% on net revenue rise of 20%.[/R]

Master Card (MA: chart) third quarter net revenue increased 20.1% to $1.08 billion. Weak dollar added 2.3% to the revenue in the quarter and 1.6% to the operating expenses.

Fueling the higher revenue in the third quarter versus the same period in 2006 was growth in MasterCard's gross dollar volume, which increased 12.8% on a local currency basis, to $577 billion; a 13.3% increase in the number of transactions processed to 4.8 billion; and, an increase in cross- border volumes of 20.6%.

Worldwide purchase volume rose 14.1%, on a local currency basis, during the quarter to $430 billion, driven by increased cardholder spending on a growing number of MasterCard cards. As of September 30, 2007, the company's customers had issued 878 million MasterCard cards, an increase of 11.3% over the cards issued at September 30, 2006.

In local currencies, purchasing volume growth was led by 29% increase in South Asia, Middle East, and Africa, followed by increases in 23.9% in Latin America, in Asia Pacific of 22.2%, in Europe 16%, in Canada of 14%, and 9.4% in the U.S.

'We continue to benefit from positive secular trends and outstanding growth in international and emerging markets such as South Asia/Middle East/Africa and Latin America”, said Robert W. Selander, MasterCard president and chief executive officer.

MasterCard third net income increased 63% to $314 million or $2.31 per share from $193 million or $1.42 per share. After deducting one-time gain of partial stake in Redecard in Brazil, earnings increased to $1.80 per share.

Total operating expenses increased 16.3% to $730 million on higher advertising and market development expenses which increased to $264 million. General and administrative expenses increased 10.2% to $433 million. The company contributed $10 million to MasterCard Foundation.

Redecard SA 25% stake sale resulted in gain of $112 million or 51 cents to earnings in the quarter.

For the nine months MasterCard reported net income of $782 million or $5.73 per share or earned $724 million or $5.31 per share on net revenue increase of 20.4% to $3 billion. As of September 30th the company has repurchased 2 million shares at a cost of $277 million and subsequently it purchased an additional 1.4 million shares at $223 million.

MasterCard said that it will increase its share buyback plan to $1.25 billion from $500 million. The number of transaction processed increased by 13% to $577 billion.

The company also converted 7.6 million of class B shares to Class A common stocks and expects to convert 5.8 million of Class B shares by the end of the second week of December. The company plans to sell these shares to public at a later date.

MasterCard has currently 135.357 million shares outstanding.

MasterCard (MA: chart) soared $20.01 to $177.15.