Excluding a special item, the company reported net income of $965 million, up 4%, or 12% after adjusting for currency, and earnings per diluted share of $0.85, up 6% or 15% adjusted for currency, versus the year-ago period. Including the special item, a $44 million after-tax charge related to a U.K. merchant litigation settlement, the company reported net income of $921 million, a decrease of 1%, or an increase of 7% after adjusting for currency, and earnings per diluted share of $0.81, up 1%, or 9% adjusted for currency, versus the year-ago period. The net income and earnings per diluted share figures, excluding the special item, are reconciled to their comparable GAAP measures in the accompanying tables. Acquisitions had a $0.03 dilutive impact on earnings per diluted share.

Net revenue for the second quarter of 2015 was $2.4 billion, a 1% increase versus the same period in 2014. Adjusted for currency, net revenue increased 7%. Net revenue growth was driven by the impact of the following:

• An increase in cross-border volumes of 17%;
• A 13% increase in gross dollar volume, on a local currency basis, to $1.1 trillion; and
• An increase in processed transactions of 13%, to 12.0 billion.

These factors were partially offset by an increase in rebates and incentives, primarily due to new and renewed agreements and increased volumes. Acquisitions contributed 2 percentage points to total net revenue growth.

Worldwide purchase volume during the quarter was up 12% on a local currency basis versus the second quarter of 2014, to $841 billion. As of June 30, 2015, the company’s customers had issued 2.2 billion MasterCard and Maestro-branded cards.

“Our business continues to perform well with good transaction and volume growth, particularly in cross-border, despite the mixed global economic environment and foreign exchange headwinds,” said Ajay Banga, president and CEO, MasterCard. “We are executing on our strategy to grow our business by focusing on winning new deals in our core payments business, while building out our data analytics, processing and safety applications. A blend of acquisitions and organic investments in these spaces remain at the foundation of our strategy.”