Popular contactless cards have catapulted Visa Europe’s revenues in the 12-month period ending June 2015, as shown in the annual report of the card company.
In the year ending June 2015, Visa Europe’s revenues surged by 25 percent to a record 2.31 billion euros, the report highlights. In Europe, approximately 1.58 trillion euros were spent using Visa cards during this period, which is 7.7 percent more than in the same period the previous year, as consumers embraced contactless cards that allow them to pay without a signature or entering a PIN. A total of 522 million Visa cards issued in Europe are in use, meaning that each adult has more than one. More than one euro out of every 5.7 euros spent in Europe is paid with Visa debit and credit cards, the company reported.
– Transactions with contactless cards are skyrocketing – in 2015, we surpassed the threshold of one billion contactless transactions annually, emphasized Visa Europe CEO Nicolas Huss in a statement.
In the 12-month period ending September, 1.7 billion contactless transactions were recorded, the company notes, highlighting the example of the United Kingdom, the largest individual market for Visa Europe, where today one in seven transactions is conducted with contactless cards, compared to one in 25 transactions last year.
Financially, the past year was the most successful in the company’s history, Visa Europe emphasizes, announcing a payout of 739 million euros to member-shareholders in the form of discounts and joint investment initiatives. The owners are Visa Europe member banks and other financial service providers from 38 countries. The network consists of more than 3,700 such companies.
In November 2015, Visa Inc. announced that it would acquire Visa Europe for 21.2 billion euros. The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year and is anticipated to bring billions of euros in extra revenue to the network’s members and shareholders.
