Visa Reports Strong Financials

SAN FRANCISCO – Cards giant Visa, preparing to go public, reported net income yesterday for the first two quarters of its fiscal year of $526.1 million, on $2.4 billion of revenues, in the first public look at the company’s financial statements. In comparison, MasterCard reported first half net income of $467.2 million on $1.9 billion in revenues. For Visa, the largest portion of revenues over the six month period ended March 31 was the $1.2 billion from card services fees, while $745 million came from data processing fees. For the first six months of the fiscal year, payment volume was up 19% and the number of transactions was up 15%. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2006, Visa reported net income of $465.4 million on $3.9 billion in revenues. Revenues included $2.1 billion in card services fees and $1.4 billion in processing fees. Visa said that four large banks, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo accounted for as much as 25% of its business in the U.S. The four bank giants, along with U.S. Bancorp and National City Corp., own almost 45% of Visa USA, which is being combined under the going public process with Visa Canada and Visa Europe, to form Visa Inc. The financials reported were pro forma for the combined entities.