“We are now seeing the more stable rates that we expect are more representative of the kind of growth rates we will see in the balance of the year.”

In context

“trengthening we expected as we move through the year that I mentioned last quarter. Pretax pre-provision income was $3.9 billion, up 33% versus the same time period last year, reflecting the strong growth momentum in our underlying earnings. So now let's get into a more detailed look at our results, which in our spend-centric business model always begins with a look at volumes, which you see on Slides 3 through 7. In total, you see on Slide 3 that we did reach a new record level for spending on our network this quarter, with total network volumes and billed business up 9% and 8% year-over-year, respectively, on an FX-adjusted basis. Of course, I'd remind you that growth rates were particularly elevated last quarter as we lapped the impact of Omicron in the first quarter of the prior year. We are now seeing the more stable rates that we expect are more representative of the kind of growth rates we will see in the balance of the year. Goods and services spending grew 6% overall in the second quarter. We saw good growth in goods and services spending in U.S. consumer and International Card Services of 8% and 15%, respectively, while this growth rate in U.S. SME did continue to slow down a bit further from last quarter. In contrast, we saw very strong growth in Travel and Entertainment spending across geographies and customer types, up 14% overall driven by sustained demand for travel and dining experiences. Looking forward, I would expect this growth rate to remain in the double-digits through the rest of this year. Turning to our largest segment, U.S. consumer grew billing strongly at 10% this quarter. Millennial and Gen Z customers continue to drive our highest billed business growth within this segment. with their sp”