Visa urges spending

MANILA, Philippines - Visa International is encouraging people to continue spending amidst the global credit crisis.

In fact, Visa country manager for the Philippines Bob Joubert is saying that spending wisely means using plastic or electronic money rather than cash or checks.

Joubert not only encourages a migration from cash and checks, the Visa executive encourages people to spend their money not the bank’s money.

“People now should use their money rather than the bank’s money through debit cards,” he said, adding that it creates an atmosphere of responsible spending. But spending nonetheless.

The global trend in fact is that debit card volumes outgrew credit cards.

“More than half of Visa cards worldwide are now debit cards,” the Visa country manager said during the formal launching recently of its GO advertising campaign.

GO advertising campaign is global with specific features suited to each region, each country.

Annual commercial spending in Asia Pacific grew to an estimated $18.9 trillion in 2007, an increase of 13 percent from $16.8 trillion in 2006. Global annual commercial spending grew to an estimated $77.3 trillion in 2007, representing an increase of 12.2 percent from $68.9 trillion in 2006.

The top five Asia Pacific economies in size of total business and government spend were: Japan ($5.2 trillion), China ($4.9 trillion), India ($2.3 trillion), South Korea ($2 trillion) and Australia ($1.2 trillion).

Visa’s network includes 1.6 billion cards, 29 million merchant outlets, more than 1.4 million ATMs and 16,500 financial institutions. In the Asia Pacific, Visa operates in 36 widely diverse territories, stretching from Japan to New Zealand and across the region to India.