News

Visa exec: Plastic won't die anytime soon

April 24, 2012

Despite opinions to the contrary, Elizabeth Buse, Visa Inc. group president for Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, said there's still plenty of life left in plastic. Buse told Dow Jones Newswires that the old school plastic card will be around for some time, even in markets where Visa is using mobile payment products to reach unbanked consumers.

"In those markets, you will have people who want feature-rich credit products, typically with a card — those are the people that travel a lot, who do traditional shopping online and who tend to be at the top of the pyramid," Buse said.

Buse said people from rural areas who are unbanked today will likely have mobile options as their only way to access financial services.

"Mobile, we believe, will be the way that electronic payments are brought to the majority of these populations," Buse said in the report.

"The rate of adoption ... remains to be seen but we do think there will be a leapfrog in a number of these markets where the traditional infrastructure won't be there," she said.

The statements came during a Visa board meeting in Singapore. The report said it's the first time the board has met outside the U.S., which highlights how important foreign markets are to Visa. Forty-six percent of the company's revenue in Q4 2011 came from outside the U.S.

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