Though the holidays are still months away, Visa U.S.A. says it is ready.
The credit card association said last week that it had completed a "stress test" meant to simulate the spikes in transaction volumes that take place on its network at the end of the year, and that the system is up to the task.
During the test, the processing engines were able to handle up to 6,285 transaction messages a second, a rate that was sustained for an hour. That volume is more than 20% higher than last year's holiday peak, when the system handled up to 5,119 messages a second on Christmas Eve. Each transaction typically requires two messages.
"This was a very successful test," said John Partridge, the president and chief executive of Inovant LLC, Visa's in-house technology development unit.
Visa conducts these tests every year to be prepared for the holiday season, which is often a merchant's biggest sales period, he said. In last year's test, the goal was to make sure the system could handle between 5,400 and 5,500 messages a second. Recognizing the ever-growing volume of electronic payments, Visa had set a goal of reaching 6,200 messages a second in this year's test.
Surveys of retailers have led Visa to project that this year's holiday volume could be as much as 20% higher than last year's.
In 2003, Visa processed an average of 3,500 messages a second, well below the holiday surge figures. During the holiday season it settled 3.2 billion transactions, with an average daily dollar value of $4.7 billion.
This year's results will be tallied from Nov. 17 through Dec. 31. Usually, the highest volumes are documented on Friday afternoons and Christmas Eve.
On average, Mr. Partridge said, it takes 1.4 seconds for the Visa system, which handles both debit and credit, to process a transaction. Merchants can request different types of authorization processes and other functions, which can lengthen transaction times.
Visa executives said that after the testing period it may continue to tinker with its systems through mid-October, when everything should be in place for the highest-volume period. The system is typically locked down in November, and no more changes are made until after the holidays.
Scott Thompson, an executive vice president with Inovant, said his team's goal during the test was to rev up the network, potentially to the point of failure. "We want to try and break it. We want to see when it will break down."
