SAN FRANCISCO – Boosted by the sale of its share of VisaNet do Brazil, Visa Inc. yesterday reported a 73% surge in third quarter earnings, to $729 million.
Revenues were up slightly, by 2%, in the third quarter, to $1.65 billion. But payments volume declined 5% and total volume declined 7%, compared to the third quarter last year. Total cards carrying the Visa brands rose 6% worldwide over the prior year to more than 1.7 billion.
Visa said it earned $1 billion from the sale of its VisaNet share. Visa recorded a gain from the sale in the quarter ended of $237 million.
Revenues for the first three quarters of the year were up 10.5%, to $5.03 billion, while earnings for the first nine months soared 58% to $1.16 billion.
Visa is one of two common stocks--MasterCard is the other–that are permissible investments for all credit unions.
