Visa: Asia's spending the big bucks

Following the release of its 2009 earnings, Visa Inc. reported that the total volume generated on all Visa cards across Asia Pacific had increased by 13 percent to US$981 billion over the past 12 months.

Rupert Keeley, President, Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, Visa Inc., said that the results may suggest very early signs of improving confidence in the region and that consumers and businesses may be beginning to spend more.

“While it is too early to call an economic recovery, we are certainly seeing more encouraging signs. Overall, Visa cardholder spending in the Asia Pacific over the last 12 months grew and,importantly, we saw a definite upswing in the number of payment transactions in the April to June quarter,” Keeley said.

“If we look at individual countries, payment volume growth in China was extremely strong,illustrating just how important it is for Visa to continue supporting the development of a robust infrastructure in large economies where the payment industry i s at an early stage of development.“

The Japanese economy has experienced significant headwinds in the last 12 months, but we have witnessed solid payment volume growth as new clients have joined the Visa network and new products have been launched, including the first Visa Prepaid card in Japan.”

“Total volume in Asia Pacific for the three months ended 30 June 2009 increased $30 billion to $259 billion compared with three months ended 31 March 2009, calculated on a constant dollar basis.”

“The increase in the number of transactions processed further highlights that the continuing shift from cash and checks to electronic forms of payments is being experienced across the world.
This trend places Visa in a position to help facilitate economic development through providing a more secure, reliable and convenient way to pay and to be paid,” Keeley said.

The total number of cards in force in Asia Pacific grew by 40 million on a year-over-year basis to 512 million cards. Asia Pacific accounted for 30 percent of the 1.7 billion Visa cards on issue globally. No figures were given for Singapore’s spending.