To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (10622 ) 12/13/1997 7:40:00 AM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Read Replies (2) | Respond to
Visa Reports Retail Spending Remains Strong Midway Through the Holiday Shopping Season
PR Newswire - December 13, 1997 07:30
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Pacific Region Leads The Nation In Holiday Spending
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Visa U.S.A. reported today that
holiday shoppers in the United States rang up more than $15.6 billion in
retail purchases on Visa payment cards from the day after Thanksgiving through
Thursday, December 11.
The retail amount charged was 12.4 percent higher than the $14 billion
recorded for the same period last year.
Visa, the nation's leading consumer payment system, with more than 50
percent of the payment card market, said consumers used Visa credit and debit
cards for more than 236 million retail transactions, a 15 percent increase
over the 205 million transactions in the same period of 1996. Total U.S. Visa
sales in all merchant categories for this period reached $19.4 billion, up 13
percent.
Strong Year-Over-Year Growth Nationwide
All regions of the United States enjoyed double-digit increases in the use
of Visa for retail spending. The Pacific region led all other regions in
retail spending growth with $3 billion in Visa retail purchases as of December
11, an increase of 13.7 percent. The growth rates for the other U.S. regions
included: Southeast, $3.3 billion, up 13.4 percent; Northeast, $3.3 billion,
up 11.7 percent; Mountain, $1 billion, up 13.6 percent; Southwest, $1.3
billion, up 11.7 percent; Great Plains, $1 billion, up 11.7 percent; and Great
Lakes, $2.7 billion, up 10.7 percent.
Visa's SpendTrak(C) analysis of consumer spending is based on
authorization data for Visa payment cards used at the more than 3.6 million
locations in the United States where Visa is accepted.
Visa estimated it will be processing at a rate of 3,000 transactions per
second during the shopping season's peak periods. One of the highest volume
transaction-processing systems in the world, Visa's global telecommunications
network can process upwards of 100 million transactions per day.
Visa is the preferred payment brand and the largest consumer payment
system worldwide. It plays a pivotal role in advancing new payment products
and technologies to benefit its 21,000 member financial institutions, their
cardholders, and the global economy. Visa is the only consumer payment system
to facilitate $1 trillion worth of purchases of goods and services in a fiscal
year. Visa's nearly 600 million cards are accepted at more than 14 million
worldwide locations, including 380,000 ATMs in the Visa/PLUS Global ATM
Network. Visa's Internet address is www.visa.com.
SOURCE Visa U.S.A.
/CONTACT: Dec. 13-14: Barbara Kalunian of Ketchum Public Relations,
212-686-5829; or Albert Cosccia of Visa U.S.A., 650-432-203; after Dec. 14:
Stacy Lewis of Visa U.S.A., 650-432-3163/
/Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax, 800-758-5804,
ext. 943138/
