Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Shrugging off what it called a “challenging” year that included a $2 billion legal settlement with retailers, Visa USA reported this morning strong gains in transaction volume on its credit and debit card business for the third quarter. Total volume grew almost 13% to $285.8 billion, leading president and chief executive Carl Pascarella to say in a statement that the card company is “extremely confident” it will achieve its 2003 target of $1.1 trillion in total card volume. The Christmas shopping season lies ahead in the fourth quarter, he also pointed out. Transactions on credit cards totaled $167.8 billion, up 7% over the year-ago period, thanks in part to some success in penetrating new merchant channels. Volume in automatic bill payment, government sectors, and fast-food outlets–all markets Visa considers key target markets–jumped 29% to more than $21 billion. Volume on all Visa debit products, meanwhile, rose more than 22%, hitting $118 billion. Visa has gained momentum in this product area lately, luring major issuers like Wachovia Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. to drop competing online debit products and issue Visa's Interlink card exclusively. Visa currently has its brand on 396 million cards in the United States.
