Visa on Thursday revealed upbeat quarterly profit and sales figures, as the credit card processor saw transaction volume rise.

The group’s operating revenues increased 23 per cent year-on-year to $4.5bn in the quarter to the end of March, helped by the inclusion of Visa Europe, which it acquired last June, as well as growth in payments and transactions volume.

Net earnings tumbled 75 per cent to $430m, or 18 cents a share, due to charges from reorganising the Visa Europe unit to align the company’s overall corporate structure. Excluding special items, earnings rose 27 per cent to $2.1bn, or 86 cents a share.

Wall Street analysts had forecast profits of 79 cents a share on revenues of $4.28bn.

Visa’s shares climbed 2.1 per cent in extended trading, which would add to a rise of 12 per cent over the last 12 months as of Thursday’s close.

“In the face of geopolitical uncertainty, Visa continues to execute well against our operating plan and strategic priorities, delivering sustained growth across nearly every part of our business,” said Alfred Kelly, Jr., chief executive. “Robust growth in payments volume, cross-border volume and processed transactions drove better than expected results”.

Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, was up 37 per cent year-on-year to $1.7tn, while total processed transactions rose 42 per cent to 26.3bn. If Visa Europe were included in the prior year’s results, transactions would have been up 12 per cent.

The strong payment growth at Visa echoes American Express, which revealed quarterly results on Wednesday that surpassed expectations, helped by stronger member spending.

Visa’s board also authorised a new $5bn share buyback programme.

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