Visa International said it reached a number of milestone in the growth of its card products and services.
Plus System Inc., Visa's international automated teller machine network installed two ATMs - its 200,000th and 200,001st - in Peru.
"We selected a country that did not have any international ATM capabilities," said Denny D. Dumler, chief executive officer of Plus.
With the addition of Peru, the Visa/Plus network is now in 83 countries.
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Visa's Interlink network, a point of sale debit network, announced that more than 50,000 U.S. merchants, operating more than 165,000 terminals, are now accepting Interlink cards. This represents and 89% increase in the number of participating merchants in the past year.
"Today's merchants have recognized that we're on the brink of a major shift in how consumers choose to pay for purchases," said Peter B. Gustafson, president of Interlink. "Merchants do not want to miss out on the opportunity to offer their customers the ability to use one of the most popular payment products available today."
Interlink was introduced in Panama earlier this year, and 34 institutions in Korea and Taiwan plan to participate.
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Visa also announced record Visa check card growth during the third quarter of this year. U.S.-based Visa members reported 17.8 million Visa check cardholders, an increase of 34.3% from the corresponding period in 1993.
Dollar volume generated by these cardholders rose to $13.7 billion in the first nine months of 1994, exceeding the $12.5 billion total for all of 1993.
