Brazil sale boosts Visa profits

Visa has posted a big jump in profits as consumers increased their use of debit cards while the firm cut costs and sold its stake in Brazil’s VisaNet.

The electronic payments company made $729m (£445m) between April and June, up 73% from $422m it made in the same period last year.

Excluding the sale of VisaNet, the firm made $507m. Sales were up 2% at $1.6bn.

Visa earns revenue primarily from the fees it charges to process payments made with credit and debit cards.

Payment volumes fell slightly in the US, but increased in other regions across the world.

The results were slightly better than analysts had expected.

“As we look forward to the remainder of our fiscal 2009 year and beyond, we will remain focused maintaining strong financial performance and expense control,” Visa boss Joseph Saunders said.

The firm has benefited from an increasing switch to making payments using plastic rather than cash.