Spending on Visa grows to €1 in every €8 in Europe

Frankfurt, 18 January 2011 – Spend on Visa cards in Europe grew by over 16% in 2010 to total over €1 trillion, according to results released by Visa Europe today.  This growth now means that €1 in every €8 of consumer spend in Europe is spent on a Visa card, up from €1 in €9 in 2009. 

Continued growth of Visa Debit

Debit cards were the payment method of choice for most consumers, with more than 70% of Visa spend on debit cards and year on year growth of nearly 20% in spend and 9% in transactions.  The number of Visa debit cards increased by over 12%, including 14 million V PAY cards – Visa Europe’s exclusive SEPA chip and PIN only card.

Announcing the results in Frankfurt, Peter Ayliffe, Chief Executive, Visa Europe said:  “Hitting two major milestones of €1 in every €8 being spent on a Visa card in Europe, and a total point of sale spend on Visa of over €1 trillion clearly demonstrates how Visa is the payment system of choice in Europe.  This success has been achieved through the quality of service we provide to consumers, retailers, governments and banks in Europe.

“Critical to this quality of service is our investment in technology and innovation.  This has totalled €1 billion in the last six years.  €0.5 billion has built the fastest and most reliable interbank transaction processing system in Europe, that processed 10 billion transactions in 2010, a 30% increase year on year.  And €0.5 billion has been invested in the development of innovative payment technologies in chip and PIN, contactless, mobile and e-commerce.”

Fraud and Security

The success of chip and PIN technology has significantly contributed to the continued downward trend of fraud on Visa cards in 2010, with the fraud to sales ratio dropping by 14% to 0.049%.  Fraud is at its lowest in those countries that have introduced chip and PIN, and e-commerce fraud is being reduced by the increased uptake of Verified by Visa by card issuers and retailers.  Further fraud prevention initiatives are being introduced via Visa Europe’s processing capability, such as real time risk scoring.  This system analyses and risk scores card transactions as they take place and has led to a 28% increase in the detection of fraudulent transactions when it is used.

Financials

Visa Europe, operating as a low cost, not for profit membership association, reported total revenues for the year of €879 million.  Following revenue reimbursements to members of €158 million, this produced a pre-tax surplus of €76 million which was retained within the business to support capital and reserves which rose to €574 million.

Peter Ayliffe, says: “Visa Europe’s strong value proposition and our continued investment in technology has maintained a growing use of Visa Cards in Europe.  In the last ten years Visa Europe’s share of consumer spending has more than doubled, from 5.6% to 12.5%.  In 2011, Visa Europe is focused on becoming the payment means of choice for more and more Europeans.”

You can now read the full Visa Europe Annual Report.