Visa Expects Global Growth to Cover Russian Revenue Loss Within a Year

Visa has lost around 4% of the revenue booked during its last fiscal year as it pulled out of Russia — though a Friday (April 8) Wall Street Journal report said the impact won’t be noticeable within a year as the company sees sales growth.

According to the report, Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu said Visa’s exit from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine would make it tough to compare the revenue this year with that of last year.

However, by next year, other areas are expected to see growth and curb the lost revenue. Visa’s global net revenue was up 10% in the year ending Sept. 30, and Russia only accounted for around 4% of the revenue in that time.

The WSJ wrote that Visa will likely see revenue from the rise of global travel, and the recovery of the company’s cross-border payments business will also help make up for lost Russian sales, according to Brett Horn, an analyst with financial service firm Morningstar’s research division.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, Visa announced its exit from Russia on March 5.

According to the report, Visa has offered relocation for all of its 210 Russian employees, with the company assisting those who decide to leave by sorting out new roles. The company did not say how many workers had accepted its offer.

Russians can keep using Visa branded cards to pay for things in the country, though the company does not generate revenue there anymore. The cards reportedly don’t make use of U.S. systems to process payments there. In Russia, for the last several years, the cards have used the National Payment Card System, which is overseen by the central bank.

Last week, PYMNTS wrote that Visa will have to defend its debit card fees for the second time, as it is now involved in an antitrust suit filed by payment processing network Pulse Network.

See also: Visa Faces ‘New Network Fees’ Antitrust Suit After Court of Appeal Loss 

In the lawsuit, Pulse has argued that the “Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF)” created by Visa violates federal antitrust law. Rather than charging merchants a per-transaction fee, Visa instead charged them a fixed, up-front monthly fee for using its debit network.