• Financial Times, Thursday, July 30, 2009 10:44 AM

Consumers used their Visa cards more last quarter (an 8% increase) but spent less (a 7% decline), the company says. It expects net annual revenue growth of high single digits in 2009 and at the lower end of the 11% to 15% per cent range in 2010.

Visa and rival MasterCard have been insulated from the credit card losses that have affected banks' card businesses because they only process transactions and do not directly lend to consumers, Saskia Scholtes writes. They also are benefiting from a worldwide shift away from cash and checks towards electronic payments.

Visa says that its global sales, client service, marketing, product development and innovation functions are being consolidated under the leadership of COO John Partridge.

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