Payments Network Earnings: Five Observations on Consumer Spending and Technology

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Earnings reports from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express show that consumer spending continues to grow and payment networks are advancing stablecoins, unpaid invoices, and transactions initiated by AI agents. Visa’s U.S. credit and debit card transaction volumes grew 11% and 9%, respectively, while the annualized volume of stablecoin settlements exceeded $25 billion and related Visa Direct services have been commercialized. Visa and Mastercard said agent-initiated transaction volumes remain low, and merchants and processors have yet to complete their preparations.