Visa Estimates $109.1 Trillion in Global Commercial Spend in 2011

October 17, 2012 at 8:03 AM EDT
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FOSTER CITY, Calif., Oct 17, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) --Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) today released the annual global Commercial Consumption Expenditure (CCE) index, which estimates that global commercial spending reached $109.1 trillion in 2011. This represents 12 percent growth from the $97.4 trillion spent in 2010 and marks the first time since Visa created the CCE in 2004 that this spending surpassed $100 trillion.

The strongest year-over-year growth rates came from Latin America/Caribbean region (19.4 percent), followed by Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East Africa region (17.4 percent) and Asia Pacific region (14.9 percent). Asia Pacific reported the largest share of global CCE spend, followed by Europe, the United States, Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, and Canada. In this year's (2011) index, Asia Pacific's spending share surpassed Europe's for the second consecutive year.

"Despite a slow, but sustained economic recovery, we continue to see healthy expansion in commercial spending," said Tad Fordyce, head of global Commercial Solutions, Visa Inc. "Underneath this growth lies a clear opportunity for financial institutions to optimize their commercial card programs to capture more spend with electronic payments and ultimately better meet the needs of their commercial and government clients."

CCE Around the Globe

Listed below is a breakdown of estimated 2011 commercial spending by global geographic areas:

Geographic Area CCE Spend

2010

CCE Spend

2011 (est.)

2011

Global Share

2010-2011

Growth

Asia Pacific $33.1 $38.0 34.8 % 14.9 %
Europe $28.6 $31.4 28.8 % 9.6 %
United States $19.7 $21.0 19.2 % 6.4 %
Central/Eastern Europe,

Middle East and Africa,

$7.1 $8.3 7.6 % 17.4 %
Latin America/Caribbean $6.5 $7.8 7.1 % 19.4 %
Canada $2.4 $2.6 2.4 % 10.0 %
Total Global CCE $97.4 $109.1 100.0 % 12.0 %

In USD Trillions

CCE Methodology

The annual Visa CCE report provides standardized tracking of business and government spending globally and is recognized as an industry benchmark for measuring commercial spending. The CCE index captures business-to-business purchases to acquire goods and services used in production, wholesale and retail purchases of final goods, business capital expenditures, and government spending on goods and services. Adjustments are made to exclude capitalized expenditures such as construction and durable defense spending. Calculations measure transactions at basic prices, which include taxes on production. Retroactive adjustments are made as necessary to include revisions in officially published statistics and economic data for current and prior years.

Data sources used to calculate the U.S. CCE index include the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and U.S. Census Bureau, which conducts the Retail and Wholesale Trade Surveys. A variety of data sources were used in the calculation of the Global CCE index including the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Eurostat database, the STructural ANalysis (STAN) database, the General Government Accounts from the National Accounts of OECD Countries, the United Nations Statistics Division National Accounts Main Aggregates Database, Economist Intelligence Unit proprietary databases, and government data from several countries. A model developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit was used to estimate results for countries where government data was unavailable.

About Visa Inc.

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks - VisaNet - that is capable of handling more than 24,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are subject to the "safe harbor" created by those sections. These statements can be identified by the terms "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will" and similar expressions which are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any underlying assumptions are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements regarding certain of Visa's goals and expectations with respect to adjusted earnings per share, revenue, adjusted operating margin, and free cash flow, and the growth rate in those items, as well as other measures of economic performance.

By their nature, forward-looking statements: (i) speak only as of the date they are made, (ii) are not guarantees of future performance or results and (iii) are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict or quantify. Therefore, actual results could differ materially and adversely from those forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including all the risks discussed in Part 1, Item 1A - "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2011. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements, which speak only as of the date of this presentation. Unless required to do so under U.S. federal securities laws or other applicable laws, we do not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: Visa Inc.

Visa Inc.
Sarah Pew, 650-432-2990
globalmedia@visa.com