Visa CEO Saunders: debit ‘resilient’ against slowdown

While consumer spending growth on credit cards has slowed, San Francisco-based Visa has had “substantial growth” in its debit card unit, Saunders, 62, said Friday on CNBC. Visa slipped 29 cents to US$74.09 at 4:03 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Visa, which has surged 68 percent since going public in March, said fiscal third-quarter profit beat analyst estimates on a 16 percent rise in U.S. debit card transactions, double the gain in credit spending. The company has three-quarters of the U.S. signature debit market and may benefit as consumers rely on the cards linked to checking accounts to pay for gas and food.

“We’ve had substantial growth in our debit-card business, those are transactions that are generally non-discretionary, and it’s helped keep us somewhat resilient from the downturn in the U.S.,” Saunders said.

Consumers make “almost three times” as many debit transactions as credit transactions, he said.

Visa reported July 30 that profit for the quarter ended March 31 rose 41 percent to US$422 million, or 51 cents a share, beating by 10 cents the average estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

U.S. purchases made on debit cards climbed 16 percent to US$193 billion in the period, compared with a 10 percent gain a year earlier. Credit-card spending rose 8.1 percent to US$195 billion.

Saunders, who spoke from the Olympics in Beijing, said there are 45 million Visa-branded cards in China.

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