Visa holders hit 1.85m

JAKARTA (JP): Visa International announced on Wednesday that the number of its credit card holders in Indonesia rose to 1.85 million as of end of March, a 42 percent increase from a year ago.

Visa's country manager for Indonesia Ellyana C. Fuad said the company's credit card sales volume also increased 49.7 percent to Rp 2.35 trillion (about US$238.6 million) during the first three months of the year, while transactions jumped by 40 percent to 6.1 million over the same period.

"Consumers are very quickly becoming aware of the need for security in payment transactions, which traditional methods such as cash do not provide. These account for the phenomenal growth in both credit and debit cards in Indonesia," she said in a statement.

The company also recorded two million holders for its Visa Electron debit card as of the end of March, a 147 percent increase from a year ago, Ellyana said.(tnt)