Visa Profit Declines As Volume Drops -- WSJ

By Orla McCaffrey 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (July 29, 2020).

A drop in payments activity pushed Visa Inc. earnings down 23% in the quarter that ended in June.

The largest U.S. card network said payments volume fell 10% from the year-earlier period.

Credit-card payments volume dropped 20%. Debit-card payments volume rose 3%.

"All of the business drivers were significantly impacted by the pandemic, " Visa Chief Executive Alfred Kelly said on a call with analysts Tuesday afternoon.

The company declined to provide an earnings outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, citing "significant uncertainty in the global economy" caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Still, Visa said U.S. payments activity "meaningfully improved" each month of the quarter, and spending picked up globally throughout the quarter.

Suppressed travel activity helped push cross-border transactions, excluding those within Europe, down 47% in the quarter, Mr. Kelly said.

Net income fell to $2.4 billion from $3.1 billion. Revenue dropped 17% from the year-earlier period to $4.8 billion, matching analysts' estimates.

Visa's shares closed Tuesday down slightly at $196.74, just before the company reported. The shares fell sharply in after-hours trading.

Last week, Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin asked the Federal Reserve to probe allegedly anticompetitive practices forcing merchants to pay excessive debit-card fees levied by large networks like Visa and Mastercard Inc. The Electronic Payments Coalition, which represents card networks and issuers, said at the time that merchants do have options when they route transactions.

Mastercard is set to report earnings on Thursday.

Write to Orla McCaffrey at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 29, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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