Transactions of Visa cardholders in RP hit $276M

Preliminary figures released by Visa International show that local and overseas Visa cardholders spent more than $276 million on their Visa cards over the holiday shopping season from mid-November to end of December in the Philippines, representing an impressive 42-percent increase over the same period the previous year.

The number of transactions also grew by over 22 percent to over five million, demonstrating the strength of the Philippine economy.

Visa Credit products accounted for over 71 percent of the spending. Visa Credit cardholders in the Philippines generated over $196 million, a 32-percent increase from the same period the previous year. The number of transactions grew by over 17 percent to just over four million.

Transactions using Visa Debit products experienced the biggest growth, with a 74-percent increase in spending when compared with the same period the previous year. Spending amounted to over $79 million, while the number of transactions grew by over 45 percent to just over a million.

"The Visa card spending figures generated over this holiday season shows that more consumers are seeing the benefits of electronic payments. Credit card usage continued to increase while debit card usage saw a tremendous surge," James Dixon, Visa International country manager for the Philippines, said. "With more and more banks offering Visa credit, debit, and prepaid products and more merchants accepting Visa cards, we expect this growth trend to continue."

"Visa is the largest global payment card association that provides unparalleled convenience, security, and rewarding ways to pay or be paid. Visa is committed to offering more and better products and services to contribute to the Philippine economy," Dixon added.

In Asia Pacific, consumers spent more than $19 billion on their Visa cards over the holiday shopping season, an increase of more than six percent year on year, and the highest-ever total spending recorded at this time of the year. The amount spent was generated by more than 227 million transactions, up 11 percent from the previous year’s 203 million.

Globally, consumers and businesses spent $34 billion more on their Visa cards over this holiday season than the previous year. Overall, global holiday season spending processed by Visa rose 13 percent to $291 billion. In all, Visa settled 4.4 billion transactions during the holiday shopping season, up 16 percent from the 3.8 billion transactions settled in 2004.

All data are based on transactions processed through VisaNet, Visa’s global transaction processing network, and includes both consumer and business transactions.

Visa tracks holiday shopping trends based on its global transaction-processing network, VisaNet. Reporting is standardized around a 45-day period from November 17 through end December, enabling consistent year-on-year growth comparisons.

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 265.9 million Visa-branded cards in the region. For the 12 months ended September 2005, $509 billion was spent at point of sale or withdrawn from ATMs in Asia Pacific using Visa cards.