Visa Payments Volume Grew 27% in Latin America and the Caribbean
Growth at point-of-sale

MIAMI-- May 18, 2009 -- Visa Inc. payments volume on all Visa-branded products in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LAC) grew 27% over the previous year to US$193 billion for the year ending on December 31, 2008. The growth achieved at the point-of-sale demonstrates that Visa is part of the everyday lives of millions of consumers, merchants, businesses and governments in the Region.

"Joint efforts among Visa and its clients are driving greater access to electronic payments, resulting in more usage of payment cards over cash and checks,” said Eduardo Eraña, president of Visa Latin America and Caribbean region. “More importantly, amid this challenging economy, we see the increasing value of our debit products, on which consumers rely more to manage their budget and increase convenience, reliability and security.”

Visa’s strategy in the Region to increase debit card activation and migrate transactions to the point-of-sale played a key role in the growth during this period. In fact, the total number of payment transactions continued to advance reaching 5 billion, which reflects a growing proportion in non-discretionary spending at the point-of-sale by consumers in key areas such as gas stations, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, healthcare and recurring payments.

At the same time, Visa’s ability to provide its financial institution clients in the Region with a mix of specialized and best-in-class products, marketing promotions, incentives and rewards are enabling them to more effectively reach greater segments of the population, ranging from entry level to upscale consumers. The result was an expansion in the number of cards carrying the Visa brand in the region, which reached 340 million in 2008.

About Visa

(Editor's Note: No pun is intended with picture...it's the Caribbean theme thing)

Visa Inc. operates the world's largest retail electronic payments network providing processing services and payment product platforms. This includes consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, which are offered under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands. Visa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world, and Visa/PLUS is one of the world's largest global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in more than 170 countries. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

Source: Caribbean  Press Releases