Visa reports higher Q2 income, focuses on acquisitions and partnerships as the year continues

On Tuesday, Visa announced its financial results for the second quarter, ending March 31, 2022. Visa CEO Alfred Kelly and CFO Vasant Prabhu took time on the earnings call to address economic challenges, partnerships, and what drove the company’s growth.

Visa is retaining its partnership with the financial agent that manages the US debit card program to work toward the goal of delivering 99% of federal payments digitally by 2030. Visa will also continue to work with governments in the crypto space to develop potential central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). 

In addition, the company highlighted several renewed partnerships, including one with Chase and Amazon for the continued issuance of the Amazon Prime Visa Signature card. Kelly also said Amazon and Visa have reached a global agreement for Visa to be accepted in all Amazon stores.

“This agreement includes the acceptance of Visa at all Amazon stores and sites today, as well as a joint commitment to collaboration on new product and technology initiatives to ensure innovative payment experiences for our customers into the future,” Kelly said on the earnings call.

The company also announced that it closed on its acquisition of Tink, a European open banking platform. Additionally, Kelly announced that Payfare, a leading fintech in the gig economy space, and Payoneer, a digital commerce partner, will use Visa Direct on their platforms.

“To summarize, there is significant opportunity in consumer payments, Visa continues to grow credentials and acceptance while deepening engagement and Visa enables innovation and scale for players across the ecosystem from installments to crypto to merchants,” Kelly said.

And despite rising inflation rates in the US, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ongoing global pandemic, Kelly said the company has seen no noticeable impact on performance.

Visa reported a non-GAAP income of $3.8 billion on revenue of $7.2 billion, with a non-GAAP EPS of $1.79. Income was up 27% over last year, and revenue increased by 25% as well. The company reported expenses of $2.4 billion, up 11%.

“In terms of the big picture, after the short four to five-week impact of Omicron in December and January in the United States and many other parts of the world, the recovery continues to be robust,” Kelly said.

Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu said that the outlook for the second half of the fiscal year remains strong. The company is moving away from cash and checks for merchant payments as digitization increases, and expects growth from value-added services from new and existing partnerships.

“Despite the uncertainties caused by inflation, interest rates, the invasion of Ukraine, and our exit from Russia, we expect fiscal year ’22 will be a very strong year of above-trend top and bottom-line growth. As we enter the post-COVID era, we remain confident we can sustain a rate of growth above pre-COVID levels,” he said on the earnings call.