Double digit growth in spend on Visa in Europe in 2008

Visa Europe, Europe’s leading payment system, announces that spending on its cards at point of sale had increased by 10.3% during financial year 2008, said the company in a press release.rnrnSpeaking in Brussels, Peter Ayliffe, Visa Europe Chief Executive, said: “The continued success of Visa Europe in these difficult economic conditions demonstrates the quality of the service we offer to banks, retailers, businesses and consumers in Europe.rnrn“The use of Visa debit cards at point of sale is up by almost 11% in Europe, and over 70% of spend is now on debit, proving that we’re actively displacing cash and cheques at tills. When consumers are managing their money, they have recognised that debit is the safer and more convenient alternative to cash,” commented Ayliffe. rnrnInnovation was highlighted as a key factor in the European company’s continued success and growth. E-commerce numbers showed a significant increase with online transactions during December’s Christmas shopping up 24% on last year. Innovations such as the Visa one time code card, Visa prepaid, Visa payWave contactless cards and mobile payment technology also demonstrated the company’s commitment to investing in the European payments industry, and provide consumers with more convenient and safer ways to pay. Over the last three years we invested on average €87 million every year on research and development of new products and technology.rnrnOne of the most significant investments in recent years has been the European built and run processing platform. The most technically advanced card processing system in Europe, as well as the cheapest and fastest, saw a 13% increase in transactions, totalling 6.4 billion, processed by Visa Europe in 2008. rnrn“The sophistication of our European processing platform can be seen by the ease with which it dealt with the busiest shopping day before Christmas, when it was processing 731 transactions every second, with a total of 24.5 million in that one day to a value of € 1.4 billion,” said Ayliffe. rnrnConcluding, Ayliffe said, “It’s 10 years since the introduction of the Euro, and one year since SEPA started with the aim of providing a consistent consumer experience with all payment means, including cards. Visa Europe remains committed to the goal of SEPA that provides such an excellent opportunity for Europe to displace cash and move to more efficient means of payment.”rnrnIn Romania, Visa Europe announces also strong double digit growth in financial year 2008, in both volume and value terms, confirming the potential of the local card market. The total number of Visa cards has increased by 15,7% and the total number of transactions with Visa cards is up 29,8% .rnrnAccording to statistics, usage of payment cards in Romania has seen a strong increase once again – the expenditure of Romanian Visa cardholders at merchants has increased by 76.3%, while the number of transactions at merchants increased by 65.4% This excellent growth is also supported by the positive development of the acquiring merchant network, that has reached close to 70,000 locations at the end of 2008. rnrn“These positive results we announced today clearly indicate that Romanians choose their Visa cards more frequently and value the safety and convenience of paying with their card. More specific, 1 in 4 transactions with Visa cards are made at merchants. We are going to enhance this positive trend through targeted consumer educational campaigns that will be launched soon”, said Catalin Cretu, general manager Visa Europe Romania.rnrnIn the same time, more businesses use Visa cards. The number of Visa Commercial cards has increased by 35.5%, while the total expenditure at point of sale increased by 81.7% Total value of commercial card transactions reached €1.25 billion.rn rnVisa Europe will continue its commitment to displacing cash and cheques in the Romanian free market, by stimulating card usage at merchants via new projects and introducing new innovative payment solutions. rnrnAbout Visa Europe rnrnIn Europe, there are over 360 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. In the 12 months ending June 2008, those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of over €1.3 trillion. 11.4% of consumer spending at point of sale in Europe is with a Visa card. rnrnVisa Europe is owned and operated by its 4,600 European member banks and was incorporated in July 2004. In October 2007, Visa Europe became independent of the new global Visa Inc., with an exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual licence in Europe.rnrnAs a dedicated European payment system it is able to respond quickly to the specific market needs of European banks and their customers – cardholders and retailers – and to meet the European Commission’s objective to create a true internal market for payments. rnrnVisa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world. In addition, Visa/PLUS is one of the world’s largest global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in over 170 countries.rn