Visa Credentials Soar as Payments Hyperscaler Eyes Agentic Commerce

Visa entered fiscal 2026 with ample evidence that credentials, and not just cards, now anchor its global payments architecture.

Management commentary spanned agentic commerce, stablecoins, as well as in B2B and P2P money movement, and CEO Ryan McInerney said during the Thursday (Jan. 29) conference call with analysts that “the core of our consumer payments business is the Visa credential … It’s the connection point to the Visa network.”

The fiscal first quarter reflected that shift. Net revenue rose 15% year over year to $10.9 billion, while payments volume climbed 8% in constant dollars to nearly $4 trillion, according to earnings material.

McInerney emphasized that credentials now totaled more than 5 billion worldwide.

Tap-to-pay penetration surpassed 80% of face-to-face transactions globally, with U.S. usage nearing 70%. Visa Flex credentials, which allow multiple funding sources from a single credential, reached about 20 million credentials, with more than 20 additional issuers expected this year. Tokens, which replace traditional card numbers in digital commerce, climbed to more than 17.5 billion globally, more than triple the number of physical cards.

McInerney said Visa has cut guest checkout from 44% of eCommerce transactions in 2019 to about 16% today, and to under 4% among its top 25 sellers. “At our top 25 sellers, 96% of transactions now require only a simple click or biometric authentication,” he noted.

Agentic Commerce Details

In discussing agentic commerce, the CEO stated that the company’s Visa Intelligent Commerce platform uses tokens as the foundation for agentic payments, with more than 100 partners engaged and over 30 actively building in Visa’s sandbox.

“We believe that we are well positioned to be the infrastructure provider and key enabler in agentic commerce so that every agent interaction is trusted and secure,” McInerney said.

Visa Direct, B2B and Stablecoin Settlement Gain Traction

Money movement beyond consumer cards also accelerated.

Visa Direct transactions rose 23% year over year to 3.7 billion, supporting both domestic and cross-border flows. Commercial and Money Movement Solutions revenue grew 20% in constant dollars, supported by 10% commercial payments volume growth.

Visa also continued to test stablecoin use cases, reporting an annualized settlement run rate of $4.6 billion. McInerney positioned stablecoins primarily as a tool for cross-border payments, disbursements and markets with currency volatility, rather than everyday consumer spending in developed economies.

Core Card Spending Holds Firm

CFO Chris Suh said Visa started fiscal 2026 with “a very strong” quarter, supported by holiday spending and steady execution across consumer payments, commercial solutions and value-added services.

In constant dollars, global payment volume rose 8% and cross-border volume, excluding intra-Europe, increased 11%. Total processed transactions grew 9%.

In the United States, payment volume climbed 7%, with credit up 7% and debit up 6%. eCommerce continued to grow faster than face-to-face spending, reflecting sustained momentum in digital channels.

Consumer behavior during the quarter suggested steadiness rather than strain. Suh said growth remained consistent across spend bands, noting that Visa “did not see a deterioration in the lower spend band,” while higher-spending consumers continued to grow the fastest. Taken together, Suh characterized the picture as one of “resilience in consumer spending,” spanning both discretionary and non-discretionary categories.

Internationally, cross-border eCommerce rose 12% and travel-related volume increased 10%. Value-added services revenue surged 28% to $3.2 billion, representing roughly half of Visa’s total revenue growth for the quarter.

Comments on Card Legislation

On Capitol Hill, Visa remains focused on the Credit Card Competition Act.

McInerney said the company is actively briefing lawmakers on the potential consequences. “It’s very harmful, and it’s just simply not needed,” he said in response to questions on the call, arguing that the payments market already faces intense competition from wallets, BNPL providers, crypto and account-to-account options.

He warned that the bill would lead to reduced access to credit, elimination of rewards, fewer card choices, weaker security protections and slower innovation.

Management guided to full year revenue growth it the low double digits. Shares were down 1.4% in after hours trading.

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