Digital Transactions: MasterCard Worldwide, reporting quarterly results for the first time since its initial public offering in May, said it lost $310.5 million in the three-month period ended June 30. That loss is compared to a gain of $120.2 million in the second quarter of 2005. One-time expenses, including a $400.3 million cost for 13.5 million shares of stock contributed to the MasterCard Foundation, pushed the bank card network into the red. Also among those one-time costs was a $23.3 million reserve against litigation settlements (the Purchase, N.Y.-based company in late July settled a lawsuit concerning currency-conversion fees but faces at least two other major suits, including a consolidated action by merchants over interchange pricing).
Read also, Merchants seek congressional action on interchange fees.
