SAN FRANCISCO – Cards giant Visa Inc. reported a 16% rise in first quarter earnings yesterday, fueled by 14% increase in revenues.
First quarter net income was $1.03 billion, up from $884 million for the same period last year, while revenues were $2.55 billion, compared to $2.24 billion for the first quarter of 2011.
Visa said credit card use in the U.S. grew a strong 10%, while debit growth slowed to just 6%, the lowest in more than a year, as new caps on debit fees took effect.
Total payments volume on a dollar basis increased 13% for the quarter, while the number of transactions over the Visa network grew by 8%.
“Visa’s core businesses drove a strong start to fiscal 2012,” said Joseph Saunders, CEO of Visa. “We achieved solid financial and operational performance as we continued to benefit from the secular shift to electronic payments.”
