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By Bloomberg

MasterCard Inc., the second-largest payments network, posted first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as customer spending increased outside the U.S.

Net income climbed 17 percent to $1.02 billion, or 89 cents a share, from $870 million, or 73 cents, a year earlier, the Purchase, New York-based company said Wednesday in a statement. The average estimate of 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was 80 cents a share. Revenue rose 2.7 percent to $2.23 billion, falling short of analysts’ estimates.

MasterCard, led by Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga, is benefiting as consumers replace cash and checks with electronic payments. MasterCard has expanded technology offerings to merchants, partnered with governments and acquired smaller firms as it seeks to increase customer spending outside the U.S., where it generates most of its revenue.

“Their strength has been in their non-U.S. regions and that should continue,” Lisa Ellis, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said before results were released. “There’s more creativity around their strategy in terms of developing local markets for the long-term.”

MasterCard struck a deal last month with Citigroup Inc. for the bank to issue most of its consumer credit and debit cards on MasterCard’s network. The firm has also announced new acquisitions, including this week’s $600 million purchase of Applied Predictive Technologies Inc., which helps merchants measure marketing and operations efforts using cloud-based analytics.

MasterCard gained 4.7 percent to $90.23 this year through Tuesday in New York trading, outpacing the 1.9 percent advance of larger rival Visa Inc.

A strengthening U.S. dollar has hurt profits outside the U.S. Currency fluctuations will probably contribute to about $600 million in lost revenue this year, Barclays Plc has predicted.

MasterCard and Visa stand to benefit after China’s government indicated this month it plans to end a monopoly in bank-card clearing by publishing new rules that take effect June 1. China UnionPay Co. is currently the sole clearing service provider for yuan-denominated payments.