Healthy global transaction-volume growth pushed Visa Inc.’s net income for final quarter of 2011 to more than $1 billion, the card brand announced Feb. 8.
The payment network reported net income of $1.03 billion for its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, up 16.5% from $884 million a year earlier. Operating revenue rose 13.8% to $2.55 billion from $2.24 billion.
Expenses during the quarter rose 6.5%, to $929 million from $872 million.
Global credit sales volume rose 8.6%, to $617 billion from $550 billion compared with the same quarter a year earlier. Global debit sales volume rose 12.2% to $378 billion from $348 billion.
“Consumers’ desire to use our products is evident in the strong growth we see outside the U.S. and the resiliency we are seeing in the U.S. in the wake of debit regulation,” Joe Saunders, Visa chairman and CEO, said in a press release.
Meanwhile, Visa on Feb. 8 announced the launch of mobile services that allow financial institutions to offer their accountholders the ability to monitor account history and balances, transfer funds between accounts, and receive near real time transaction alerts on their mobile devices (
