£1 in £3 in the UK now spent
on Visa cards, fuelled by growth in debit and ecommerce
spend
Visa
delivering the future of payments with launches of mobile payments
and digital wallet services in 2012
17th January
2012 – Strong growth in online shopping and debit
card spending has resulted in a record year for Visa Europe as it
announces its annual results which show that, for the first time,
£1 in every £3 spent in the UK is now spent on a Visa card.
Ecommerce spending accounted for 22% of all Visa spend in the UK,
growing by more than 40% over the year. In the year ending
30th September 2011, debit spend on Visa cards topped
£318 billion, a rise of 27% on the previous year. ,
Peter Ayliffe, Chief Executive,
Visa Europe said: “In 2010, debit overtook cash for the
first time and consumers’ appetite for using debit continued
unabated in 2011, with spending on Visa debit cards up 27% and
accounting for 90% of all Visa consumer card spend.
Consumers’ preference for debit cards signals just how
fundamentally important electronic payments are to the UK’s retail
banking sector and the wider economy.
“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 products,
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
will be on a mobile device”.
Visa Europe realises the future of
payments as it launches new mobile and digital
services
Significant progress was made in payments
innovation by Visa Europe in 2011 with around 20 million
contactless cards issued in the UK 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 strategy¹.
In 2012 Visa Europe expects the number of
contactless cards to hit 30 million in the UK, 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.
Consumers will get a unique opportunity to
experience the future of payments for themselves at the London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games where Visa will showcase its payment
innovations to a worldwide audience. For the first time, consumers
will not need to use cash at the Games unless they choose to do
so.
Chip and PIN drives fraud to an all
time low
Fraud losses on Visa cards in the UK
reached an all-time low in 2011, with the fraud to sales ratio
falling by 23% to 0.05%. Much of this downward trend in the
face-to-face environment can be attributed to the success of Chip
and PIN (EMV) technology; 2011 marked five years since the full
transfer to chip technology in the UK. 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 ecommerce
fraud.
Visa Europe – a European-wide
success story
Visa Europe has replicated its UK success
across Europe, with its annual results also showing that, operating
as a low cost, not for profit membership association, Visa Europe’s
reported total revenues for the year are more than one billion
Euros. 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.
Visa Europe processed nearly one billion
transactions every month in 2011 across Europe, registering a 19%
year-on-year growth as the number of processed transactions reached
11.8 billion. This growth in Visa’s European processing
services has prompted investment in a new data centre, to be
located in the UK, which is twice the size of the current Visa
Europe primary processing site. This expanded operation will
support anticipated future increases in processing, including
growth in ecommerce transactions and mobile payments.
Note to editors:
About Visa Europe
In Europe, there are 445 million Visa debit,
credit and commercial cards. In the 12 months ending September 2011
those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the
value of €1.7 trillion. 14% of consumer spending at point of sale
in Europe is with a Visa card, and almost 80% of that is on Visa
debit cards.
Visa Europe is owned and operated by more
than 3,700 European member banks and was incorporated in July 2004.
Visa Europe is independent of global Visa Inc., with an exclusive,
irrevocable and perpetual licence in Europe, while both companies
operate to ensure global interoperability. As a dedicated European
payment system Visa Europe is able to respond quickly to the
specific market needs of European banks and their customers -
cardholders and retailers - and to meet the European Commission’s
objective to create a true internal market for payments.
Visa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around
the world. In addition, Visa/PLUS is one of the world’s largest
global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in over
200 countries.
For more information, visit http://www.visaeurope.com/
Monitise and Beyond
Analysis
Monitise is a technology company delivering
mobile banking, payments and commerce networks worldwide with the
proven technology and expertise to enable financial institutions
and other service providers to offer a wide range of services to
their customers in developed and emerging markets. In October 2011
Visa Europe announced a strategic investment of £24.7m in Monitise
plc (LSE: MONI.L) to strengthen the commercial partnership between
the two companies which began in February 2011.
In November 2011 Visa Europe also took a
minority stake in leading customer insight group, Beyond Analysis.
The investment will strengthen Visa Europe's data analytics
capabilities and forms part of its strategy to deliver increased
value for consumers, retailers and banks through electronic
payments. Beyond Analysis has been working with Visa Europe since
2008.