Visa Commercial cards show solid, 17% growth across Europe in 2005/6

27 September 2006 London Companies across Europe continue to adopt Visa Commercial card programmes for business and cash management with a 17% expenditure growth rate in the year to June – annual figures released by Visa Europe show today. The new figures also demonstrate that when business people have a commercial card, they tend to spend more per transaction than consumers, with the average transaction value at point of sale for commercial cards now at €120 compared to €56.90 for consumer cards.

Visa Commercial card spending by businesses increased to €50.9 billion from €43.6 billion across the Visa Europe area in the year ending June 06, demonstrating how Visa is becoming an increasingly important presence in the commercial and public sector. Spending at point of sale rose by just over 16.2% across the region during the same period.

There was also a significant increase in the number of Visa Commercial cards in circulation rising by 15.3% to 7.5m. Each of these cards was used on average 55.8 times during the year.

Luc Janssen, Head of Visa Commercial, Visa Europe commented: “Companies across Europe are increasingly using Visa Commercial cards as a business and cash management tool, with a 17% percent expenditure growth rate in the past year. A number of markets have grown particularly significantly in the last year – for instance, in mature markets, spending in France grew by over 20%, and the growth rate in Turkey was 69.8%. Businesses all over Europe, both large and small, are realizing that Visa Commercial cards provide an easy, convenient way to purchase goods and services, and manage business expenditure.”

“In addition to the overall success of Visa Commercial products and services, nearly all Visa regions experienced double-digit growth in commercial sales volume.

“We had a number of significant product launches this year which have been well received by our customers. These include the launch of a new corporate payment card solution, ‘Visa Company’. This was developed to simplify and improve the management and recording of expenditure for mid-sized companies that account for 30% of all EU businesses’ turnover. The ‘Visa Company’ card, which can be used to pay for all forms of business expenditure, together with a business support package, brings the full benefit of corporate card programme economics to the middle market.

“The second significant development, following the successful launch Visa Information Source (VIS), a comprehensive web-based reporting and information management system, in April 2005 is VIS Select. This is a dedicated version of VIS for small and medium sized businesses. It is a product that has been very well received by our customers and we’re really excited about the potential of VIS Select.”

Overall Visa Commercial growth was strong in both mature and emerging markets. Strong performers included Northern Europe (+44.4%), France (+20.4%), UK (+18.0%) and Central Europe (+17.8%). Turkey however saw the largest growth of the region with 69.7% in the 12 month period.

UK businesses use Visa Commercial cards more than any other European business with average transactions per card of €165, in total worth nearly €18.5 billion in the year to June 2006. This market alone makes up over a third of the total Visa Commercial European spend. The second largest market is France with transactions worth €6.6 billion and Germany third with €5.4 billion a year spent on commercial cards.

Visa Business Debit and Pre-paid cards were the rising stars of the year. Originally launched in 2003/04 in the UK and subsequent markets since, pre-paid was this year introduced to Italy. Across the European region the total spent on the Visa Business Debit and Pre-paid cards rose by 33%.

In a number of markets across Europe there has also been significant uptake of the Visa Purchasing offer for government and public sector organisations GPC (Government Procurement Card) spend growth in the UK is a particular success story. During the year cumulative GPC Visa spend had reached €2.97 billion and savings provided to UK Public Sector through the use of GPC Visa since its launch in 1997 now total over €474.5 million (based on efficiency savings established by KPMG and endorsed by the National Audit Office).