IMGCAP(1)]
Visa Inc. today said its U.S. payment volume declined 1% in August compared with the same period a year ago, while credit volume fell 10% and debit volume increased 7%. Cross-border payment volume on a constant dollar basis fell 7% in August, while global processed transactions increased 9% in August. Visa reported the information in a U.S. Securities and Exchange regulatory filing in anticipation of a presentation it will make on Wednesday in New York at the Barclay's Capital Global Financial Services conference. The company did not provide spending totals. But Sanjay Sakhrani, an analyst with the New York-based equity analysis firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, says the filing reveals some positive trends, and suggests Visa's fourth-quarter results may show improved performance compared with previous quarters this year. August was an improvement from July, when Visa's overall payment spending declined 2% compared with the same period a year earlier. And debit spending volume increased at a faster clip compared with July, when it rose only 4% from the same month last year. "While conditions still remain relatively weak given the state of the economy, we are encouraged by the operating metric data," Sakhrani wrote in a report today, adding Visa may offset weaknesses this quarter by cutting costs. Moreover, October marks the one-year anniversary of the beginning of last year's sharp downturn in consumer spending and a drop in gas prices, which is likely to provide Visa with more-favorable monthly spending comparisons during the fourth quarter. These factors are likely to provide "a tailwind relative to headwinds in the current quarter," Sakhrani wrote.
