Summary
Visa Inc. filed an 8-K on September 3, 2021, providing a regulatory disclosure of preliminary performance metrics for August 2021, offering insights into the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The report indicates continued year-over-year growth across key metrics, with a particular focus on comparisons to pre-pandemic 2019 levels to gauge the pace of economic rebound. While domestic payment volumes showed resilience, cross-border transactions are still recovering, though trending positively. Overall, the data suggests a sustained improvement in Visa's business performance during August 2021. Domestic payments volume remains strong relative to 2019, and while certain segments like travel are still below pre-pandemic levels, they are showing signs of recovery. International volumes, excluding specific regional impacts, also improved, indicating a broader global economic recovery. Investors should note that these figures are preliminary and subject to change.
Key Highlights
- 1U.S. Payments Volume in August was 30 points above 2019 levels, though slightly down from July.
- 2Credit payments in the U.S. were down 2 points from July relative to 2019, while Debit was down 4 points.
- 3Card not present (CNP) volume excluding travel reached 151% of 2019 levels in August, down 6 points from July.
- 4International market payments volume generally increased from July levels relative to 2019, with notable exceptions in select Asian countries and New Zealand due to COVID-19 restrictions.
- 5Cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe transactions improved to 85% of 2019 levels in August, a 4-point increase from July.
- 6Total cross-border volume increased to 99% of 2019 levels in August.
- 7Global processed transactions were 125% of 2019 levels in August, a slight improvement from July.