Mastercard Inc beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Wednesday as customers spent more on its cards during the US holiday shopping season, boosting fees for the world's second-largest payment processor.

The company's gross dollar volume, the dollar value of transactions processed, rose 12% to $1.73 trillion in the fourth quarter. US retail sales, a measure of purchases at stores, restaurants and online, rose every month in the fourth quarter helped by a strong holiday shopping season, while wage gains and the labor market remained on solid footing.

Around 29.38 billion transactions were processed, a 19% increase from a year earlier. The gain was led by a 9% rise in the United States and a 28% jump in Europe. Net revenue rose 16% to $4.41 billion, edging past analysts' estimates of $4.40 billion.

Adjusted net income rose to $2.0 billion in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from $1.6 billion a year earlier. On a per share basis, the company earned $1.96 per share, while analysts had expected a profit of $1.87 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.