Visa: May Payments Volume Shows Slide Slowing

Visa‘s total U.S. payments volume in May declined slower than the previous two months, which could be indicative of a slight economic recovery as consumers spend more, Reuters reported.

The payments volume in May saw a drop to 5 percent, better than the 18 percent drop from April. So far this quarter, Visa has seen an 11 percent drop in payments volume overall from April 1 to May 31, according to statistics from the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Monday (June 1).

Cross-border numbers saw a 45 percent drop in revenues, excluding intra-Europe transactions. The rates for global processed transactions fell by 12 percent, the filing said. Last month, cross-border travel-related transactions were down 78 percent.

In total, Visa assessed that the international markets where it processes the most transactions were lagging behind the U.S. in May.

However, the brightest spot was for digital eCommerce transactions, which have been growing steadily through the pandemic as people turn more often to the internet to buy goods in the absence of being able to go out in person. Those transactions spiked 18 percent in May, Visa said in the filing.

Terry Angelos, Visa’s vice president and global head of FinTech, spoke with PYMNTS recently about the ultra-quick transition to digital made by many companies as the pandemic made person-to-person contact much less safe than it once was. Angelos said Visa’s new Fast Track program is intended to help FinTechs quickly adapt their services to the digital world, and 140 FinTechs around the world are joining the program.

The Fast Track program includes 18 companies broken down into five categories that are trying to assist the world in recovering from the coronavirus pandemic: enablement partners; female-founded FinTechs; digital currency wallets; consumer-centric and B2B solutions providers.

Angelos said the newest companies inducted into the Fast Track program all have some connection to helping businesses streamline digital onboarding, manage finances and replace physical commerce channels with the digital ones needed now.