Visa Sees Drop in Transaction Volumes
People around the world are staying inside as the coronavirus continues to spread in most countries. So it makes sense that credit card companies are seeing a decline in spending. Visa is one of those companies and once again it lowered its outlook for revenue growth in the fiscal second quarter. Visa says the coronavirus pandemic has led to a sharp decline in cardholders’ overseas spending, Bloomberg reports.
Visa cardholders’ spending has seen a decline of 4% in the U.S.. Spending for customers overseas on the other hand shows a much bigger decline of 19%. But, the number of transactions is up by 9% overall, between Jan. 1 and March 28.
With people self isolating, and many losing some income, the focus has shifted to essential spending. “As countries have imposed social distancing, shelter-in-place or total lock-down orders, domestic spending, most notably in travel, restaurants, entertainment and fuel, has sharply declined week on week,” Visa said in a statement.
Visa remains the world’s largest payments network. In the 2nd quarter of 2019 the company posted $2.1 trillion in total payment volume. Mastercard is a distant second and Amex comes in third.
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