Net revenue rose 15% year‑over‑year to $10.9 billion with EPS up 15%; payments volume grew 8% to nearly $4 trillion and processed transactions increased 9% to 69 billion, signaling a strong start to fiscal 2026.
Outperformance was driven by accelerating value‑added services and commercial/money‑movement solutions — value‑added services grew 28% in constant dollars to $3.2 billion, commercial revenue climbed ~20%, and Visa Direct transactions rose 23% to 3.7 billion.
Management emphasized the “Visa as a Service” push — including tokenization (about 17.5 billion tokens), 5+ billion credentials, expanding stablecoin settlement ($4.6 billion annualized run rate) and issuer‑processing wins — while maintaining full‑year guidance and returning capital (≈$3.8B buybacks and $1.3B dividends, $21.1B buyback authorization remaining).
Visa (NYSE:V) reported what management described as a strong start to fiscal 2026, driven by resilient consumer spending, continued growth in cross-border activity, and accelerating contributions from value-added services and commercial and money movement solutions.
Chief Executive Officer Ryan McInerney said fiscal first-quarter net revenue rose 15% year-over-year to $10.9 billion, while earnings per share increased 15%. Payments volume grew 8% year-over-year in constant dollars to nearly $4 trillion, and processed transactions increased 9% to 69 billion.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Suh said business drivers were “strong and relatively consistent” with fiscal Q4. In constant dollars, cross-border volume excluding intra-Europe rose 11% and processed transactions grew 9%.
In the U.S., payments volume increased 7%, with credit up 7% and debit up 6%. Suh noted a “slight step down” in U.S. payments volume through the quarter, driven primarily by debit. He attributed that to a Visa Direct client shifting remaining volume to its own solution, the loss of some Interlink volumes tied to a Capital One debit migration, and severe weather affecting certain spending categories. He added that the highest spend band continued to grow the fastest, and Visa did not see deterioration in the lower spend band.
On holiday spending (Nov. 1 through Dec. 31), Suh said U.S. consumer holiday spending growth was in line with last year, with strength in retail, improvement in fuel, and moderation in other categories. Retail holiday spending growth was slightly better than last year, led by e-commerce. Visa said several key countries saw similar patterns, with retail holiday growth improving year-over-year and e-commerce leading.
Suh said fiscal Q1 net revenue outperformance was largely driven by three factors: stronger-than-expected value-added services revenue, lower-than-expected client incentives, and stronger-than-expected commercial and money movement solutions revenue, which more than offset lower-than-expected currency volatility. Revenue increased 13% in constant dollars, and EPS rose 14% in constant dollars.
Visa detailed performance across major revenue components:
Service revenue grew 13% year-over-year, which management said reflected pricing and card benefits.
Data processing revenue rose 17%, attributed to pricing, strong value-added services performance, and higher cross-border transaction mix.
International transaction revenue increased 6%, below the 11% constant-dollar cross-border volume growth (excluding intra-Europe). Suh cited lower-than-expected volatility and additional pressure from mix and hedging.
Other revenue grew 33%, driven by advisory and other value-added services and pricing.
Client incentives increased 12%, lower than management expected due to one-time write-downs tied to client performance and deal timing.
McInerney said commercial and money movement solutions revenue grew 20% in constant dollars, supported by 10% constant-dollar commercial payments volume growth and 23% Visa Direct transaction growth. Suh added Visa Direct transactions increased 23% to 3.7 billion, with strength in domestic and cross-border use cases.
Value-added services revenue grew 28% in constant dollars to $3.2 billion, with Suh citing strength across all portfolios and particular demand for advisory and other services, “especially in marketing services.” In response to analyst questions, management emphasized the broad-based nature of value-added services growth, spanning issuing solutions, acceptance, risk and security, and advisory.
McInerney framed Visa’s strategy around a “Visa as a Service stack,” highlighting innovations across credentials, tokens, agentic commerce, stablecoins, issuer processing, and risk and security.
On credentials, he said Visa now has more than 5 billion credentials. Tap-to-pay penetration surpassed 80% of face-to-face transactions globally, with the U.S. at nearly 70%. Visa also cited growth in “Tap to Phone,” which McInerney said helped acceptance locations exceed 175 million globally and added more than 20 new markets over the past year.
Visa’s Flex credential, which allows multiple funding sources on a single credential, reached about 20 million credentials globally. McInerney said Block announced a pilot launch of a Cash App Visa Debit Flex card that enables Afterpay “to pay over time anywhere Visa is accepted” and leverages Visa’s DPS issuer processing solution for the debit component. Visa expects to expand Flex to more than 20 additional issuers this year, according to McInerney.
On tokenization, McInerney said Visa has more than 17.5 billion tokens globally—more than three times the number of physical cards—and described a long-term goal of fully replacing card-centric e-commerce payment technology. He highlighted ongoing work to reduce guest checkout in Visa e-commerce, which he said fell from 44% in 2019 to about 16% in fiscal 2025; among Visa’s top 25 sellers, it is less than 4%.
McInerney said stablecoins remain early-stage for payments but that Visa’s objective is to build an interoperable layer between stablecoins and traditional fiat payments. He said Visa expanded stablecoin card issuance to surpass 50 countries and extended USDC settlement capabilities into the U.S. Total stablecoin settlement reached an annualized run rate of $4.6 billion globally, according to McInerney. Visa also launched a global stablecoins advisory practice and announced pilots involving Visa Direct stablecoin payouts in the U.S.
In issuer processing, Visa discussed investments in DPS and progress following its Pismo acquisition. McInerney highlighted Pismo’s first post-acquisition commercial offering with Banco BICE in Chile (with Mendel) and Pismo’s first fleet card offering with Finance Now in New Zealand. In Q&A, he described modernization of bank technology stacks as a long sales-cycle opportunity and said there was “no change” in the total addressable market, calling it “enormous.”
On risk and security, McInerney said Nets (part of Nexi Group) selected Featurespace to expand fraud prevention for 150 banks in Nordic and Central Europe. Visa also provided updated results for Visa Account Attack Intelligence, which it said scored more than 60 billion transactions and identified nearly 600 million suspicious transactions in the last 12 months in the U.S. McInerney added that in Latin America, within six months, almost 90% of clients were activated and Visa had prevented more than $10 billion of fraud.
Looking ahead, Suh said Visa is maintaining its full-year expectations for adjusted and nominal net revenue growth, with adjusted net revenue growth expected to be in the low double digits. He said Visa assumes the macro environment remains broadly stable and consumer spending stays resilient.
For fiscal Q2, Visa expects adjusted net revenue growth in the low double digits, with a step down from Q1 driven by lower pricing contribution, lower volatility, and higher incentive growth. Visa expects adjusted operating expense growth in the mid-teens in Q2, reflecting increased marketing-related expenses tied to the Olympics and FIFA and prior-year timing effects.
On taxes and other items, Suh said full-year tax rate expectations were revised lower to 18% to 18.5% due to “claim of right” tax benefits related to recent and anticipated legal settlements, while reiterating a long-term tax rate expectation of 19% to 20%. Visa now expects full-year non-operating expense of approximately $100 million to $125 million.
During the quarter, Visa bought back approximately $3.8 billion in stock and paid about $1.3 billion in dividends. Visa also funded a litigation escrow account by $500 million, which Suh said has the same effect on EPS as a stock buyback. At the end of December, Visa had $21.1 billion remaining in buyback authorization.
Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.
Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.
