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04/02/2010 -
Increased use of credit and debit cards as well as rebounded consumer spending have led to solid first quarter earnings for payment processing giant Visa, the company announced Wednesday.The fiscal first quarter of 2010 ending December 31, 2009 saw GAAP net income of $763 million, or $1.02 per diluted class A common share.
GAAP net operating revenue was $2 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 13 percent. This was "driven by strong contributions across all revenue categories, in particular data processing revenues and international transaction revenues," Visa reported.
Increased payment processing led to a payments volume growth of 2.5 percent year-over -year, reaching $720 billion in the first quarter, while the number of Visa-branded cards rose 5 percent worldwide to 1.8 billion.
"The improvements are due partly to cost-cutting and partly to consumers' relentless move toward spending with plastic, particularly debit cards, instead of cash and checks," reported the Wall Street Journal.
The performance may also be due in part to the company's large marketing push in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, for which Visa is the official sponsor.
