The total number of Visa-branded cards on issue in the region rose to 238 million, an increase of 36 million over 2003. Total transactions for the Asia Pacific region using Visa-branded cards increased to 4.8 billion, up 16 percent from 2003. "Visa card spending in 2004 showed significant increases in most markets. This was most evident during the Christmas period when Visa Asia Pacific transactions peaked at more than 300 per second," Visa Asia Pacific president and chief executive officer Rupert Keeley said. Keeley attributed Visa’s performance to strong growth in the consumer credit and commercial product segments; solid economic growth across the region; an increase in ATM acceptance of 37 percent over 2003; and a strong fourth quarter that resulted in $94 billion in RSV, up 13.5 percent from the same period in 2003. "The year ended, however, on a somber note due to the Dec. 26 tsunami tragedy. Nearly three months on, the emphasis is shifting increasingly to addressing the challenge of economic reconstruction. This is where Visa can make the greatest difference," Keeley said. Visa reported RSV growth in every Asia Pacific market in 2004, including double digit RSV growth in two of its top three markets, Japan and Korea.
Korea, Visa‚s largest market in Asia Pacific in terms of RSV, saw an increase of 13.3 percent in RSV to a record $94.3 billion. This reflected a progressive recovery in the local industry and the development of the commercial sector.
Japan was aided by solid consumer confidence and recorded RSV that increased to $91.7 billion, a 10-percent increase over 2003. Structural changes in the overall market and the development of retail banking are expected to lead to a progressive acceleration in the card market. Among other major Asia Pacific markets, RSV rose 63 percent in India to nearly $3 billion, 21 percent in Taiwan to $22.3 billion, 22 percent in Hong Kong to $16.4 billion, 17 percent in New Zealand to $7.9 billion and nearly four percent in Australia to $68 billion.
In China, Visa reported 200-percent growth in RSV to $3.24 billion on internationally-accepted cards.
China is already a leading player in world tourism (ranking seventh by the WTO as both a destination and a source market) and is set to grow further.
In December 2004, Visa and the Bank of China launched the Beijing Olympics Visa credit card, targeted at sports enthusiasts. The dual currency card allows cardholders to perform transactions in renminbi in China and in foreign currencies when overseas. Visa is also working with the China National Tourism Administration and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad on Olympic destination marketing to attract tourists to China. Meanwhile, Japan led the way with more than 77 million cards, an increase of nearly three percent over 2003, but the fastest percentage growth was in India where the number of cards on issue increased by 72 percent to 27.8 million.
Other markets that reported significant double-digit growth included Taiwan (25.3 million cards, up 15 percent), Thailand (13.6 million cards, up 35 percent), Indonesia (10.4 million cards, up 73 percent), Philippines (6.1 million cards, up 52 percent) and Malaysia (5.7 million cards, up 27 percent). Growth in spending on debit cards continued to outpace that of credit in Asia Pacific. While spending on debit cards in Asia Pacific currently remains a fraction of that on credit cards, 2004 marked the first time global Visa debit volume surpassed credit card volume. Visa debit RSV in the Asia Pacific region was nearly $10 billion, up 22.8 percent over 2003. In Asia Pacific, Visa has a greater market share than all other payment card brands combined with 62 percent of all card purchases at the point of sale being made using Visa cards. There are currently 238 million Visa-branded cards in the region. In 2004, $475 billion was spent at POS or withdrawn from ATMs in Asia Pacific using Visa cards.