SAN FRANCISCO – Card giant Visa Inc. reported a 33% surge in second quarter earnings yesterday to $713 million, fueled by higher-than-expected growth in transaction volume.
The cards giant, one of two, along with MasterCard, controlled by banks and credit unions, reported transactions processed over its VisaNet system grew 14% for its fiscal second quarter and payments volume expanded by 13%.
Revenues rose by 19% for the second quarter to $1.96 billion.
For the first six months of its fiscal year Visa reported a 16% gain in revenues to $3.9 billion; and a 33% rise in net income to $1.5 billion.
Visa and MasterCard are the only two common stocks that credit unions may own. Credit unions obtained the stock as part of the conversion of the companies from cooperatives owned by banks and credit unions to publicly owned corporations. Credit unions and banks still are the largest owners of the two card companies and control the board of both entities.
