Similar to its global counter-part Mastercard, Visa Inc. reported a 17% YoY drop in revenues and a 30% YoY drop in profits for Q4 2020, due to a significant fall in cross-border transactions between July and September this year. The company suffered a 38% YoY drop in cross-border payments globally in Q4 2020, while cross-border volumes excluding intra-Europe fell by 41% YoY, according to its investor presentation. "While our business drivers and financial results were impacted by Covid-19 in 2020, we’ve made significant progress in advancing our growth strategy. Visa drove the adoption of eCommerce and tap to pay to accelerate cash digitization, successfully unlocked new flows by expanding Visa Direct and B2B partnerships, and facilitated client innovation through our value added services," said Alfred Kelly Jr., chairman and chief executive officer, Visa. Early improvement in cross-border transactions The cross-border recovery has been sluggish during the quarter since most borders remained closed or there were restrictions, Kelly said. However, there were improvements from September onwards as travel was eased between the US, Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as Persian Gulf States and Turkey, he said. The sharp recovery in these corridors provide some early indicators for how cross-border travel may recover and borders duly opened. And finally, the recovery so far has been uneven. V-shaped for domestic volumes, but L-shaped for cross-border volumes. The cross-border business remains a significant and continued drag on revenue growth. - Alfred Kelly Jr, chairman and CEO, Visa Focus on electronic payments "While the underlying…
