Visa Says US Payments Volume Climbed 11% Y/Y in August

Visa said its U.S. payments volume was up 11% from a year ago, with even the company’s exit from Russia not hurting the stats, a Seeking Alpha report said.

Credit payments volume was up 17%, while debt volume was up 7%, both up one point since July.

The August international markets were consistent with the July levels on a year-over-year basis, along with comparing them to how things were in 2019. Visa said the August cross-border volume had increased one point from July as well, at 129% of 2019. Card not present volume, excluding travel, was down 1 point, to 156% of 2019.

The company exited Russia earlier in the year because of that country’s war in Ukraine started in February.

Visa and Mastercard have said it’s the fault of fraud for the uptick they’ve seen in cross-border fees since the U.K. left the European Union, a post on the parliament.uk website noted.

Read more: Visa and Mastercard Blame Fraud for Increased Cross-Border Fees

The payments giants increased cross-border interchange fees on purchases from U.K. consumers to European businesses and by European consumers to U.K. businesses, with the fees going from 0.2% to 1.15% for debit cards and 0.3% to 1.5% for credit cards.

The U.K. Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) set out plans for two market reviews focused on card fees, including one focused on cross-border interchange fees.

After the PSR probe, the Treasury Committee of the U.K. Parliament sent letters to both companies, asking them to explain the higher fees. Visa said it “does not earn revenue from interchange. Interchange ensures that there is a value transfer between the financial institutions who provide services to both consumers and merchants.”

Visa said the rise had to do with the eCommerce transactions where the merchant is based in the U.K. and the cardholder is in the EEA, or vice versa. The company said cross-border eCommerce did have a higher risk of fraud, and that there was more of a need for vigilance and investment by issuers.