Visa’s Payments Volume in Latin America and the Caribbean Grew 23.2%1 in 2010 to US$270 billion

March 14, 2011 01:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) today announced its Latin America and Caribbean performance results for the year ended December 31, 2010. Regional payments volume growth reached 23.2 percent in 2010, with Brazil recording 24.6 percent, Mexico 16.8 percent, and the rest of Latin America and Caribbean as a group reporting a 22.8 percent yearly growth. Strong performance was fueled by continued growth in payments volume and processed transactions regionally – Visa’s core business.

“The Visa network is the foundation for the payment services and solutions that differentiate our brand. It allows Visa to provide clients, consumers, businesses and governments with fast, trustworthy and secure transaction processing while, at the same time, fueling the Latin American and Caribbean economy.”

“This performance is the outcome of a sound global strategy: to migrate cash transactions to our global processing network,” stated Eduardo Eraña, President of Visa, Latin America and the Caribbean Region. “The Visa network is the foundation for the payment services and solutions that differentiate our brand. It allows Visa to provide clients, consumers, businesses and governments with fast, trustworthy and secure transaction processing while, at the same time, fueling the Latin American and Caribbean economy.”

For the quarter ending on December 31, 2010, the busiest season of the year, Visa’s payments volume for Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 26.7 percent to US$82 billion. The number of transactions processed by the Visa network in Latin America and the Caribbean reached 916 million during the same quarter, which represents 226 million more transactions than the same period in 2009.

In 2010, Visa core debit and credit products saw considerable growth. The high level of efficiency and transparency offered by Visa debit products paved the way for the introduction of financial services in developing markets, incorporating previously unbanked consumers into the financial system. Payments volume for Visa debit products in 2010 reached a 28.2 percent growth in Brazil, 19.1 percent in Mexico and 29.0 percent in the rest of Latin American and Caribbean countries as a group.

Likewise, increased access to credit in emerging economies boosted Visa’s credit payments volume for a yearly growth of 22.6 percent in Brazil, 14.8 percent in Mexico and 20.4 percent in all other Latin American and Caribbean countries. In 2010 Visa aggressively promoted Visa Gold, Visa Signature, Visa Platinum, and Visa Infinite cards, its credit products for affluent consumers, which were the main drivers of growth for the credit segment.

Key alliances such as the recently announced partnership with money transfer services company MoneyGram, have allowed Visa to penetrate new market segments by offering greater speed, security, trustworthiness, and cost-effective payment tools to more consumers in more places. By easing the flow of remittances, Visa opens the spectrum of options available to consumers in sending money to others who now have convenient access to funds through Visa’s global network, via millions of businesses.

The company’s regional financial results also confirm a focus on expanding emerging channels such as e-commerce and mobile payments, which represent the biggest opportunities in the regional payments industry.

About Visa

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world’s most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visitwww.corporate.visa.com.

¹ All growth data quoted in this release is in Constant US$ terms.

Contacts

Visa Inc.
Camilo Pino, + 1-305-328-1493
Latin America and Caribbean Region
cpino@visa.com
or
Burson–Marsteller
Valerie Jaimes, + 1-305-347-4359
valerie.jaimes@bm.com

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