Visa Europe sees double digit growth with €1 in every €7 spent
in Europe on a Visa card
Cardholder expenditure in Ireland amounted to €13.0
billion, an increase of 48% on 2010.
28% increase in the number of cards. Approximately
3.4 million Visa cards in Ireland
76% increase in overall number of Irish transactions in
2011
Dublin, 17 January 2012 - Spend on Visa cards
in Europe grew 14% in 2011, totaling €1.16 trillion, according to
results released by Visa Europe today. This growth now means
that €1 in every €7 of consumer spending in Europe is on a Visa
card, up from €1 in €8 in 2010 and €1 in €18 in 2000.
Double digit growth of Visa Debit
The growth in debit, as the preferred payment card for Europeans,
continued apace, registering 16% year-on-year growth in both value
and volume of consumer transactions made at point of sale. Nearly
80% of Visa spend is on debit cards in Europe.
Peter Ayliffe, Chief Executive, Visa Europe said: ”Despite the
continuing economic challenges, spending on Visa cards by Europeans
grew by 14% in 2011 as more consumers and retailers recognised the
convenience, security and efficiency of electronic payments.
The strongest growth, once again, was on debit
cards.
We expect this growth in electronic payments to continue during
2012 when we will be launching mobile payments and our digital
wallet services. These new services, that are a key part
of our future of payments strategy, will
revolutionise consumers' everyday shopping experience to the
extent that by 2020 we predict that over half of all Visa
transactions in Europe will be on a mobile device.'
Ireland
2011 was a year of continued growth in Ireland as the number of
card transactions increased and the continued rollout of Visa Debit
and Visa Prepaid products gathered pace. Cardholder
expenditure during 2011 in Ireland amounted to €13.0 billion, which
represents an increase of 48% on 2010. As a result, €1 in €8
of consumer spend in Ireland is now on a Visa card. This is
expected to further improve in the future in comparison to the
level of consumer spending on Visa cards in Europe.
There was a 28% increase in the number of Visa cards – debit,
credit and prepaid – in the market and there are now approximately
3.4 million Visa cards in the country. The increase in the
total number of Visa cards, combined with growth in usage in areas
such as eCommerce, led to a 76% increase in the overall number of
transactions in Ireland in 2011, with approximately 157.9m
transactions taking place during the course of the year.
There were a number of other positive developments in Ireland in
2011, with Bank of Ireland and AIB both announcing plans to
introduce Visa Debit. In addition Centra announced that it
would be the first retailer to accept contactless payments in
Ireland and the first transaction will take place early in
2012.
Visa Europe processing
Visa Europe processed nearly one billion transactions every month
in 2011, registering a 19% year-on-year growth as the number of
processed transactions reached 11.8 billion. This growth in
Visa Europe’s processing services has prompted investment in a new
data centre, which is twice the size of the current primary
processing centre. This expanded operation will support
anticipated future increases in processing, including growth in
ecommerce transactions and mobile payments.
Managing risk: the success of chip
Fraud losses on Visa cards in Europe reached an all time low in
2011, with the fraud to sales ratio falling by 27% to 0.038%,
meaning that fraud now accounts for less than four cents in every
€100 spent. Much of this downward trend in the face-to-face
environment can be attributed to the success of EMV chip
technology, with more than 75% of all Visa cards in Europe now
chip-enabled. The increased uptake of Verified by Visa by
card issuers and merchants, together with real time risk scoring
introduced into Visa Europe’s processing capability, are
contributing to the reduction in e-commerce fraud.
Future of Payments
Significant progress was made in payments innovation by Visa Europe
in 2011 with a total of 30 million contactless cards issued and the
first mobile payment services launched, with person-to-person
payments and text alerts in October 2011. Strategic
investments were also made by Visa Europe in Monitise and Beyond
Analysis¹ to assist in its delivery of its Future of Payments
strategy
In 2012 Visa Europe expects to see contactless cards hit 50 million
in circulation in Europe, and the first launches of mobile phones
enabled to make point-of-sale transactions. Visa Europe will
also launch its new ecommerce digital wallet service in the latter
half of the year.
Financials
Visa Europe, operating as a low cost, not for profit membership
association, for the first time ever reported total revenues for
the year of more than €1 billion. Following major investments
to ensure delivery of Visa Europe’s ‘Future of Payments’, this
produced a pre-tax surplus of €241 million. This sum was
retained within the business to support capital and reserves which
rose to €738 million.