In the 2Q 2012, these four Credit Card Corps had Total Pretax Income of a huge $5.2 bil, a nice increase of 9% over the 2Q 2011.
I don't think it is good for the US economy, and fair for that matter, for these Credit Card Corps to generate 9% earnings growth in the current quarter, when so many smaller businesses and individuals, their customers, are suffering so much economically in this same quarter.
In deriving Pretax Income, I excluded large Litigation Settlement Gains and Losses, as well as Visa's Revaluation Gain on its Visa Europe's Put Option.
Below here are the 2Q 2012 Pretax Earnings of these four US Big Credit Card Corps, along with that earned in the prior year's 2Q.
| Increase | Increase | |||
| PTI | PTI | (Decrease) | (Decrease) | |
| 2Q 2012 | 2Q 2011 | Amount | % | |
| mils $s | mils $s | mils $s | ||
| US Big Credit Card Corps | ||||
| American Express | 1,879 | 1,545 | 334 | 22% |
| Visa | 1,491 | 1,421 | 70 | 5% |
| Discover Financial Services | 867 | 926 | (59) | -6% |
| MasterCard | 973 | 892 | 81 | 9% |
| Total all 4 | 5,210 | 4,784 | 426 | 9% |
