UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
þ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2016
OR
¨ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission file number 001-33977
VISA INC.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware | 26-0267673 | |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (IRS Employer Identification No.) | |
P.O. Box 8999 San Francisco, California | 94128-8999 | |
(Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) | |
(650) 432-3200
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share | New York Stock Exchange | |
(Title of each Class) | (Name of each exchange on which registered) | |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share
Class C common stock, par value $0.0001 per share
(Title of each Class)
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes þ No ¨
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No þ
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes þ No ¨
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. þ
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):
Large accelerated filer þ | Accelerated filer o | |
Non-accelerated filer o | Smaller reporting company o | |
(Do not check if a smaller reporting company) | ||
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No þ
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, held by non-affiliates (using the New York Stock Exchange closing price as of March 31, 2016, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter) was approximately $145.5 billion. There is currently no established public trading market for the registrant’s class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, or the registrant’s class C common stock, par value $0.0001 per share.
As of November 9, 2016, there were 1,867,580,597 shares outstanding of the registrant’s class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, 245,513,385 shares outstanding of the registrant’s class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 16,814,896 shares outstanding of the registrant’s class C common stock, par value $0.0001 per share.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Registrant’s Proxy Statement for the 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Such Proxy Statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the Registrant’s fiscal year ended September 30, 2016.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Unless the context indicates otherwise, reference to "Visa," "Company," "we," "us" or "our" refers to Visa Inc. and its subsidiaries.
"Visa" and our other trademarks referenced in this report are Visa's property. This report may contain additional trade names and trademarks of other companies. The use or display of other companies' trade names or trademarks does not imply our endorsement or sponsorship of, or a relationship with these companies.
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Forward-Looking Statements:
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that relate to, among other things, our future operations, prospects, developments, strategies, growth of our business, integration of Visa Europe, anticipated expansion of our products in certain countries, plans to issue additional debt, industry developments, expectations regarding litigation, timing and amount of stock repurchases, sufficiency of sources of liquidity and funding, effectiveness of our risk management programs and expectations regarding the impact of recent accounting pronouncements on our consolidated financial statements. Forward-looking statements generally are identified by words such as "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "projects," “could," "should," "will," "continue" and other similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made, are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our control and are difficult to predict. We describe risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, any of these forward-looking statements in Item 1—Business, Item 1A—Risk Factors, Item 7—Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and elsewhere in this report. Except as required by law, we do not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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PART I
ITEM 1. Business
OVERVIEW
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We enable global commerce through the transfer of value and information among these participants. Our advanced transaction processing network facilitates authorization, clearing and settlement of payment transactions and enables us to provide our financial institution and merchant clients a wide range of products, platforms and value-added services.
Our vision is to be the best way to pay and be paid for everyone, everywhere. To deliver on this vision, we focus on six strategic goals:
• | Evolve our client interactions to build deeper partnerships with financial institutions, merchants and new industry partners; |
• | Transform Visa’s technology assets to drive efficiency and enable innovation; |
• | Achieve success as a leading partner for digital payments comparable to what we have achieved in the physical world; |
• | Expand access to Visa products and services globally; |
• | Champion payment system security for the industry; and |
• | Be the employer of choice for top talent. |
Visa is one of the world’s largest retail electronic payments network based on payments volume, number of transactions and number of cards in circulation.
Visa Network
* Total volume includes Europe for the fourth quarter.
Visa operates in a four party model, which includes card issuing financial institutions, acquirers and merchants. We are not a bank and do not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for account holders on Visa products. In most cases, our financial institution clients are responsible for and manage account holder and merchant relationships.
We do not earn revenues from, or bear credit risk with respect to, interest or fees paid by account holders on Visa products. Interchange reimbursement fees represent a transfer of value between the financial institutions participating in our open-loop payments network. We administer the collection and remittance of interchange reimbursement fees through the settlement process, but we generally do not receive any revenue related to interchange reimbursement fees. In addition, we do not receive as revenue any of the fees that merchants are charged directly for acceptance by the acquirers.
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Visa Brand
The Visa brand is one of the most well-known and valuable brands in the world. Anchored on the notion that Visa is 'everywhere you want to be,' the brand stands for acceptance, security, convenience and universality. In recognition of its strength among clients and consumers, the Visa brand is ranked highly in a number of widely recognized brand studies, including the 2016 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands Study (#6), Interbrand’s 2016 Best Global Brands (#61) and Forbes 2016 World’s Most Valuable Brands (#30). We leverage our brand strength to deliver added value to financial institutions, merchants and other clients through compelling brand expressions, expanded products and services, and innovative marketing efforts.
Payment Security
Security is critical to maintaining trust and confidence in electronic payments. To ensure that Visa remains one of the safest ways to pay and be paid, we deploy a multi-layered security approach focused on eliminating vulnerable data from the payments environment, securing the data that remains, preventing fraud and empowering system participants to protect themselves. This approach has historically kept fraud rates low as payment volumes have grown. With commerce moving to digital channels, we are investing in new technologies and solutions in order to maintain the trust that consumers, clients and merchants place in Visa. This requires innovation, leadership and cross-industry collaboration.
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Fiscal 2016 Key Statistics
*Please see Item 7—Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a reconciliation of our adjusted financial results.
KEY INITIATIVES
Visa Europe Acquisition. Prior to our 2007 reorganization, Visa operated as a collection of member-owned associations, with each region serving its member financial institutions and administering Visa programs within a global framework. In 2007, Visa reorganized, with all of the regions except Visa Europe coming together to form Visa Inc., a Delaware corporation. Visa Europe remained owned by its European member financial institutions.
On June 21, 2016, we acquired Visa Europe. We believe the acquisition positions our Company to create additional value through increased scale, efficiencies realized by integration of the businesses, and benefits related to Visa Europe's transition from a member-owned association to a for-profit enterprise. We plan to bring Visa's global capabilities to our European clients, deliver a more seamless experience operating as one single global company and grow our business in that region. As part of the acquisition, we acquired 100% of the share capital of Visa Europe for €12.2 billion ($13.9 billion) and €5.3 billion ($6.1 billion) in preferred stock, with an additional €1.0 billion, plus 4% compound annual interest, to be paid on June 21, 2019.
Capital Structure. In December 2015, we issued $16 billion of senior notes with maturities ranging between two and 30 years, and in June 2016, we issued two new series of preferred stock to Visa Europe's member financial institutions that are convertible into approximately 79 million shares of class A common stock as part of the Visa Europe transaction. We also have plans to raise an additional $2 billion in debt by the end of calendar year 2016, subject to market conditions.
Technology Transformation. At its heart, Visa is a technology company. With the intensifying digital economy and the ubiquity of mobile technology, data and enhanced security driving the future of payments, we embarked on a multi-year journey in 2015 to transform technology at Visa with the main areas of focus on opening our network and creating a digital platform for innovation while at the same time adding layers of security and operational resilience. We have executed on our workforce plan by hiring a total of 1,700 technology employees globally over the past two years, including nearly 750 new college graduates, replacing a significant percentage of our contractor and vendor spend. We are making steady progress on our technology strategic roadmap, resulting in enhanced services for our ecosystem stakeholders and positive impacts to our infrastructure. Since the launch of Visa’s Developer Platform (VDP) in 2015, more than 180 of Visa’s product or service functions are available in API or application program interface format to our clients and partners. We added new services to enable clients to develop support for tokenized transactions and create new and innovative solutions in mobile, ecommerce and digital face-to-face transactions. Cybersecurity remains a top focus and in fiscal 2016 we launched our new Threat Intelligence Fusion Platform, a cyber command and control center that provides integrated cybersecurity operations to further help protect our data and assets. At the same time, new open technologies have been added
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systematically to our infrastructure and platform components and we continue to bolster the resiliency of our infrastructure and application services to provide high availability of our services for our clients.
How We Work with Partners - Innovation Centers, VDP & API Suite. To drive new technologies in the payments space and accelerate the proliferation of safe and fast digital payments, we opened new innovation centers in Dubai, Miami and Singapore in fiscal 2016. Along with the San Francisco innovation center and European innovation hubs in London, Tel Aviv and Berlin, these centers foster collaboration with our financial institution clients, partners and developers across the regions to spur creation of the next generation of payments and commerce applications and solutions. In 2016, VDP became generally available, offered application developers around the globe access to Visa technology, services and tools, and provided safe testing environments for the development of new digital payments and commerce solutions. By exposing new and modified APIs through a variety of channels, Visa has made digital payment solutions available to support hundreds of financial institutions and technology partners such as Google, Microsoft and Samsung.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Core Products
Debit: Debit cards are issued by banks to allow consumers to access funds held in their demand deposit accounts (DDAs). Debit cards allow consumers to transact without needing cash or checks and without accessing a line of credit. Visa provides the network infrastructure, product support and industry knowledge to help issuers optimize their debit offerings and help consumers and merchants efficiently transact for the purchase of goods and services, whether in person or through online or mobile channels. Across all Visa’s core products, Visa offers security protections that help prevent, detect and resolve fraud. Where applicable, Visa's zero-liability policy protects consumer cardholders from any unauthorized charges.
Credit: Credit cards are issued by banks to allow consumers to access credit to pay for goods and services. Visa does not extend credit; however, we provide combinations of card benefits and brand support, that financial institutions use to support and enable their credit products. We also partner with our clients on product design, customer segmentation and customer experience design to help financial institutions better deliver products and services that match their consumers’ needs. In fiscal 2016, we saw significant volume growth from the conversion of the USAA portfolio to Visa and opening of credit acceptance at Costco membership warehouses in the U.S.
Prepaid: Prepaid products draw funds from a designated pool of funds. Prepaid cards can be funded by individuals, corporations or governments. Prepaid cards address many consumer use cases and needs:
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Commercial: We offer a portfolio of corporate (travel) cards and purchasing card (P-card) products covering all major segments. The Commercial category is not one single product but a portfolio of products designed to bring efficiency, controls and automation to corporate and government travel and procurement processes ranging from employee travel to fully integrated, invoice-based payables. We support financial institutions, accounts payable platforms, like Bottomline and MineralTree, and technology companies as they build and expand their business-to-business platforms.
Processing Infrastructure
VisaNet authorizes, clears and settles transactions processed by Visa, excluding European domestic transactions, which are routed through the European processing platform. VisaNet consists of multiple synchronized processing centers that are linked by a global telecommunications network and engineered for minimal downtime and uninterrupted connectivity. While Visa Europe's systems are being integrated with our systems, we will continue to maintain mostly separate authorization, clearing and settlement systems from Visa Europe while ensuring interoperability with their processing centers in the United Kingdom (U.K.).
VisaNet is capable of handling more than 65,000 transactions per second reliably, conveniently and securely. In fiscal 2016, Visa processed over 83 billion payment and cash disbursement authorization transactions, which included Europe during the fourth quarter. VisaNet is built on a centralized architecture, enabling us to analyze each authorization we process in real time and provide value-added processing services, such as risk scoring and tokenization. It provides the infrastructure for delivering innovation and other payment system enhancements for domestic payment systems and cross border international transactions globally.
A typical Visa transaction begins when the account holder presents his or her Visa product to a merchant as payment for goods or services. The transaction is then sent to the acquirer and routed over VisaNet or Visa Europe's processing platform to an issuer for an authorization decision. The transaction is either approved or declined and routed back to the acquirer and merchant usually in a matter of seconds.
Transaction Processing Services
Our core transaction processing services involve the routing of payment information and related data to facilitate the authorization, clearing and settlement of transactions between our issuers and acquirers. Our processing services also address the varied needs of other participants in the evolving payments ecosystem, through such offerings as our merchant gateway and Visa DPS issuer processing. Merchant gateway services, provided through CyberSource, enable merchants to accept, process and reconcile payments, manage fraud and safeguard payment security online and in-store. CyberSource additionally enables acquirers and other partners to offer these services to their merchants. DPS provides comprehensive issuer processing services for participating issuers of Visa debit, prepaid and ATM products. Value-added offerings by DPS to issuer clients include: fraud and risk services, data analytics, marketing campaign management, mobile and digital solutions, back office tools and services, card fulfillment and management, network gateway services, call centers and web hosting solutions. These and other services support our issuers and acquirers and their use of our products, and promote the growth and security of our payments network by expanding the payment value chain and increasing network utilization.
Digital Products
Visa Checkout: Visa Checkout offers consumers an expedited and secure payment experience for online transactions wherever Visa Checkout is enabled. Visa Checkout helps merchants convert higher numbers of consumers to sale, a particularly important issue as digital commerce shifts from desktop devices to mobile devices which have lower conversion rates. At the end of fiscal 2016, Visa Checkout had over 15 million consumer accounts in 21 countries, seven languages and over 1,400 financial institution partners across the globe participating. More than 300,000 merchants, including some of the largest global retailers accept Visa Checkout. In October 2016, we rolled out a redesigned Visa Checkout experience, making it easier for consumers to enroll and complete purchases on mobile devices. We recently announced that we are opening the Visa Checkout platform to clients and partners, allowing them to integrate their digital wallets into Visa Checkout for streamlined authentication and checkout.
Visa Direct: Visa Direct is a push payment product platform that facilitates payer-initiated transactions that are sent directly to the Visa account of the recipient. It supports faster payments use cases like person-to-person (P2P) payments, and disbursements. We are working with key partners, including processors like Fiserv, FIS and Jack Henry & Associates, and originators like Early Warning (EWS), Ingo Money, Hyperwallet, Wells Fargo and QIWI, along with merchants to expand the distribution and usage of push payments.
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We are also enabling push payments in developing economies to electronify payments. We recently launched a new service called mVisa in Kenya. First launched in Rwanda in 2014 and India in 2015, mVisa allows consumers to transfer money to merchants in real time using their mobile phones and merchants are able to accept Visa transactions without the need to install card acceptance hardware.
Visa Token Service: The Visa Token Service replaces the card account numbers from the transaction with a token. Tokenization helps to protect consumer financial information and lessen the risk of stolen card credentials. In fiscal 2017, we announced new specifications that allow certified third party service providers such as Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient and Inside Secure to connect directly to our Token Service and become Token Service Providers (TSP). These TSPs will be able to provide a range of services to support Visa tokens for issuers and token requestors participating in the Visa Token Service, including new account provisioning and life cycle management. By expanding access to the Visa Token Service to new partners, we expect Visa issuers will be able to more quickly and easily offer secure digital payment services across a wide range of solutions.
Merchant Products
Visa has a suite of products and services to help merchants reduce their payment fraud and improve their customer engagement. Visa Advertising Solutions, Visa Commerce Network and CyberSource’s product offerings are examples of Visa’s continued investment to deliver industry-leading products and capabilities to our merchant partners.
Visa launched Visa Advertising Solutions, a service that allows merchants to better target and track the efficacy of their digital campaigns. Visa has partnered with strategic advertising technology leaders to help deliver targeting and measurement capabilities using aggregated and anonymous spend insights. The Visa Commerce Network (VCN) uses Visa’s global payment network to enable merchants to promote relevant offers to acquire new customers, drive loyalty and increase sales. For example, Uber uses the platform to provide its customers with card-linked offers from local restaurants and retailers. Qualifying purchases are recognized at the point of sale and rewards are applied to the riders' Uber accounts - eliminating the need for coupons.
CyberSource offers a suite of products and services for merchants to manage online, mobile and in-store payments. CyberSource gateway services enable global payment acceptance of cards and other digital payment types. CyberSource Decision Manager is a comprehensive solution for fraud management including a merchant risk model, rules engine, managed services and solutions for specific categories such as airline fraud. Decision Manager Replay is an analytical tool that allows merchants to compare fraud strategies in real-time using their historical data to test and quantify the expected impact of various risk management strategies. CyberSource additionally offers payment security services including tokenization and payer authentication, commerce services such as tax calculation and recurring billing, and merchant reporting and analytics. CyberSource also offers products and services tailored to the needs of small and mid-sized merchants under the Authorize.Net brand. CyberSource and Authorize.Net capabilities are offered through Visa and our partners.
Risk Products & Payment Security Initiatives
Visa continues to develop our suite of risk products and services to help clients minimize risk and enable secure commerce. Visa Risk Manager is a decision making solution that helps issuers improve loss prevention and profitability through effective, enhanced risk evaluation capabilities. Products like Visa Advanced Authorization evaluate the risk associated with every participating VisaNet transaction. Our case studies have shown that an issuer employing Visa Advanced Authorization can significantly improve fraud detection. In addition to reducing fraud, approval rates can be increased by accepting transactions that were once deemed too risky. For example, in fiscal 2016 we introduced Mobile Location Confirmation, a service that enhances Visa Advanced Authorization by adding geolocation intelligence in real time. Mobile Location Confirmation informs issuers if their participating account holder’s mobile phone is near a purchase location. This new data improves the issuer’s ability to make more informed approve or decline decisions.
We have also extended our fraud prediction capabilities to merchants via Visa Transaction Advisor. Our first implementation of this product is at fuel pumps, whereby we provide a risk indicator to the merchant for each Visa card transaction so the merchant can decide if they would like to require incremental authentication for risky transactions. Fuel merchants using our Visa Transaction Advisor product have seen a significant decline in counterfeit fraud rates and in lost and stolen fraud chargebacks.
Verified by Visa is a solution designed to make online transactions safer by authenticating an account holder’s identity at the time of purchase. It is designed to improve account holder and merchant confidence in online
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purchases and to reduce disputes and fraud related to the use of Visa payment products. Visa Consumer Authentication Service is a hosted solution for issuers on Verified by Visa transactions delivering protection against online fraud through risk-based authentication. Issuers have full control of when and how they decide to authenticate based on their transaction risk threshold, existing fraud-detection tools, operational requirements and user demands.
We also launched Visa Consumer Transaction Controls in fiscal 2016, which allow account holders to place restrictions on their enrolled cards that define when, where and how those cards can be used to better manage account spending and security. Issuers can utilize this solution across their entire card portfolio.
EMV Migration in the United States: To enhance payment security and mitigate counterfeit fraud, we have been working with U.S. merchants and financial institutions to encourage the adoption of EMV chip payment technology. EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, is a global standard for chip cards and chip terminals. Chip technology generates a one-time use code for every transaction that is used to authenticate that the transaction is originating from a valid (i.e., not fraudulent) card. Under policies announced by Visa in 2011, effective October 2015, the party that has not adopted the more secure chip technology is responsible for any resulting counterfeit fraud. Over the last year, there has been steady growth in chip card issuance and in the activation of chip-enabled terminals. As of September 30, 2016, more than 373 million Visa chip cards have been issued, making the United States the largest chip card market in the world. Nearly 1.6 million merchant locations in the United States are now chip-enabled, or roughly 30% of all U.S. merchants that accept Visa cards at the physical point of sale. Over 30% of U.S. in-store payment volume is now being processed as chip transactions. We continue to work to help improve the merchant and account holder experience, with the roll out of Quick Chip, a solution designed to reduce the time it takes to complete a chip transaction. We are also working with merchants and acquirers to simplify the terminal certification process, and have taken steps to limit merchants’ exposure to counterfeit fraud liability for those that have had challenges getting terminals certified and activated.
SIGNIFICANT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS
CEO Succession. On October 17, 2016, we announced that Alfred Kelly, Jr. will become CEO, effective December 1, 2016, replacing Charles Scharf. Mr. Scharf will serve as an advisor to Mr. Kelly for a period of several months to assist with the transition.
Interchange Multidistrict Litigation. Visa, MasterCard and various U.S. financial institutions are defendants in class and individual actions challenging, among other things, Visa’s and MasterCard’s purported setting of interchange reimbursement fees and certain network rules. In 2012, Visa, MasterCard, various U.S. financial institution defendants, and class plaintiffs signed a settlement agreement to resolve the class plaintiffs’ claims. On January 14, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment order approving the settlement, from which a number of objectors appealed. On June 30, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the lower court's certification of the merchant class and reversed the approval of the settlement. The Second Circuit determined that the class plaintiffs were inadequately represented and remanded the case to the lower court for further proceedings not inconsistent with its decision. Prior to November 23, 2016, class plaintiffs may file a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the Second Circuit’s decision. Until the appeals process is complete, it is uncertain whether the Company will be able to resolve the class plaintiffs' claims as contemplated by the settlement agreement. See Item 1A—Risk Factors—We may be adversely affected by the outcome of litigation or investigations, despite certain protections that are in place and Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Note 20—Legal Matters of this report for more information.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We own and manage the Visa brand, which stands for acceptance, security, convenience and universality. Our portfolio of trademarks, in particular our family of Visa marks, our PLUS mark and our Dove design mark, are important to our business. We give our clients access to these assets through agreements with our issuers and acquirers, which authorize the use of our trademarks in connection with their participation in our payments network. We also own a number of patents, patent applications and other intellectual property relating to payment solutions, transaction processing, security systems and other matters. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions, to protect our proprietary technology.
NET OPERATING REVENUES
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Our gross revenues are principally comprised of service revenues, data processing revenues, international transaction revenues and other revenues. Net operating revenues are gross revenues reduced by costs incurred under client incentive arrangements. We have one reportable segment, Payment Services.
Revenue Details
COMPETITION
The global payments industry continues to undergo dynamic change. Existing and emerging competitors compete with Visa for consumers, financial institution clients and merchant participation in our network and payment solutions. Technology and innovation is shifting consumer habits and driving growth opportunities in ecommerce, mobile payments, block chain technology and digital currencies. These advances are enabling new entrants, many of which depart from traditional network payment models. In certain countries, the evolving regulatory landscape is changing how we compete, creating local networks or enabling processing competition.
We compete against all forms of payment. This includes paper-based payments, primarily cash and checks, and all forms of electronic payments. Our electronic payment competitors principally include:
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Global or Multi-Regional Networks, which typically offer a range of branded, general purpose card payment products that can be used at millions of merchant locations around the world. Examples include MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB. These competitors may be more concentrated in specific geographic regions, such as JCB in Japan and Discover in the U.S., or have a leading position in certain countries. For example, UnionPay operates the sole domestic acceptance mark in China. Based on available data, Visa is one of the largest retail electronic funds transfer networks used throughout the world. The following chart compares our network with these network competitors for calendar year 2015(1):
(1) | UnionPay, which operates primarily within the Chinese domestic market, is not included in this table as Visa currently does not compete in that market under local law. Although we are uncertain how UnionPay reports certain volumes, reportedly its numbers could approach or exceed some of those listed in this chart. |
(2) | The data presented are provided by our financial institution clients. Previously submitted information may be updated and all data are subject to review by Visa. Visa Europe data are included. |
(3) | MasterCard, American Express, JCB and Discover/Diners Club data sourced from The Nilson Report issue 1085 (April 2016). Includes all consumer and commercial credit, debit and prepaid cards. Some figures are estimates and currency figures are in U.S. dollars. MasterCard excludes Maestro and Cirrus figures. American Express includes figures for third-party issuers. Discover figures consist of U.S. data only and include third-party issuers. JCB figures include third-party issuers and other payment-related products. |
Local and regional networks, that operate in many countries, often with the support of government influence or mandate. In some cases, they are owned by financial intuitions. These networks typically focus on debit payment products, have functionality or their brand marks present with the Visa brand on the card or payment device, and may have strong local acceptance and recognizable brands. Examples include STAR, NYCE, and Pulse in the United States, Interac in Canada, and EFTPOS in Australia.
Alternate Payment Providers, which often have a primary focus of enabling payments through ecommerce and mobile channels. These companies may process payments using in-house account transfers between parties, electronic funds transfer networks like the Automated Clearing House (ACH), or global or local networks like Visa. In some cases, these entities are both a partner and a competitor to Visa. Examples include PayPal and Alipay.
Other Electronic Payment Networks like the ACH in the U.S. are often created and governed by local governments. Historically focused on interbank transfers, many are adding capabilities that may make them more competitive for retail payments. We also compete with closed-loop payment systems, wire transfers and electronic benefit transfers.
Payment Processors, where we face competition for the processing of Visa transactions or are not permitted to do so under local regulation. For example, as a result of regulation in Europe under the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), we may face competition from other networks, processors and other third-parties who could process Visa transactions directly with issuers and acquirers.
We also face increasingly intense competitive pressure on the prices we charge our financial institution clients. We believe our fundamental value proposition of acceptance, security, convenience and universality offers us a key competitive advantage. We succeed in part because we understand the needs of the individual markets in which we operate. We do so by partnering with local financial institutions, merchants, governments, non-governmental
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organizations and business organizations to provide tailored solutions to meet their varied needs. We believe Visa is well-positioned competitively, due to our global brand, our broad set of Visa-branded payment products and our proven track record of processing payment transactions securely and reliably through VisaNet.
SEASONALITY
We generally do not experience any pronounced seasonality in our business. No individual quarter of fiscal 2016 or fiscal 2015 accounted for more than 30% of our operating revenues in those years.
WORKING CAPITAL
Payments settlement due to and from our financial institution clients can represent a substantial daily working capital requirement. Most U.S. dollar settlements are settled within the same day and do not result in a receivable or payable balance, while settlement in currencies other than the U.S. dollar generally remain outstanding for one to two business days, which is consistent with industry practice for such transactions.
FINANCIAL INFORMATION ABOUT GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
For more information on the concentration of our operating revenues and other financial information, see Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Note 13—Enterprise-wide Disclosures and Concentration of Business included elsewhere in this report.
GOVERNMENT REGULATION
As a global payments technology company, we are subject to complex and evolving global regulations in the various jurisdictions in which our products and services are used. The most significant government regulations that impact our business are discussed below. For further discussion of how global regulations may impact our business, see Item 1A—Risk Factors—Regulatory Risks.
Supervisory Oversight of the Payments Industry. Visa is subject to financial sector oversight and regulation in substantially all of the jurisdictions in which we operate. In the U.S., the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has supervisory oversight over Visa under applicable federal banking laws and policies. The federal banking agencies comprising the FFIEC are the Federal Reserve Board, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Credit Union Administration. Visa also may be examined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as a service provider to the banks that issue Visa-branded consumer credit and debit card products. Central banks in other countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Hong Kong and Europe (as discussed below), have recognized or designated Visa for purposes of various degrees of financial stability regulation as a retail payment system. Visa is also subject to oversight by banking and financial sector authorities in other jurisdictions, such as Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
Government-imposed Market Participation and Restrictions. Certain governments, including China, Russia and India, have taken actions to advantage domestic payments systems and/or certain issuers, payments networks or processors, including by imposing regulations that favor domestic providers or that mandate domestic processing be done entirely in that country.
Interchange Rates and Fees. An increasing number of jurisdictions around the world regulate or influence debit and credit interchange reimbursement rates in their regions. For example, the Dodd-Frank Act in the U.S. limits interchange reimbursement rates for certain debit card transactions, the E.U.’s Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR) limits interchange rates in Europe (as discussed below) and the Reserve Bank of Australia has regulated average permissible levels of interchange for over a decade.
Network Exclusivity and Routing. In the U.S., the Dodd-Frank Act limits network exclusivity and preferred routing for the debit and prepaid market segments. Other jurisdictions impose similar limitations, such as the IFR’s prohibition on restrictions that prevent multiple payment brands or functionality on the same card.
No-surcharge Rules. We have historically enforced rules that prohibit merchants from charging higher prices to consumers who pay using Visa products instead of other means. However, merchants’ ability to surcharge varies by geographic market as well as Visa product type, and continues to be impacted by litigation, regulation and legislation.
Privacy and Data Protection. Aspects of our operations or business are subject to privacy, data use and data security regulations, which impact the way we use and handle data, operate our products and services, and even
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impact our ability to offer a product or service. In addition, regulators are proposing new laws or regulations which could require Visa to adopt certain cybersecurity practices. In many jurisdictions consumers must be notified in the event of a data breach, and such notification requirements continue to increase in scope and cost. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which will become effective in May 2018, will create new individual privacy rights and impose worldwide obligations on companies handling personal data.
Anti-corruption, Anti-money Laundering, Anti-terrorism and Sanctions. We are subject to anti-corruption laws and regulations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the U.K. Bribery Act and other laws, that generally prohibit the making or offering of improper payments to foreign government officials and political figures for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business or to gain an unfair business advantage. We are also subject to anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws and regulations, including the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act. In addition, we are subject to economic and trade sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the U.S.
Internet Transactions. Many jurisdictions have adopted regulations that require payments system participants to monitor, identify, filter, restrict or take other actions with regard to certain types of payment transactions on the Internet, such as gambling and the purchase of cigarettes or alcohol.
Additional Regulatory Developments. Various regulatory agencies also continue to examine a wide variety of other issues, including mobile payment transactions, tokenization, money transfer, identity theft, account management guidelines, disclosure rules, security and marketing that could affect our financial institution clients and us.
European Regulations and Supervisory Oversight. In addition, following the Visa Europe acquisition in June 2016, we are subject to complex and evolving regulation of our business in the European Union. Visa Europe has been designated as a Recognized Payment System, bringing it within the scope of the Bank of England’s oversight to ensure the financial stability of the U.K. Visa Europe is also subject to the Eurosystem’s oversight, including the security of payment instruments and ecommerce security policies and scheme rules. Furthermore, Visa Europe is regulated by the U.K.’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), which has wide ranging powers and authority to review our business practices, systems, rules and fees with respect to promoting competition and innovation in the U.K., and ensuring payments meet account holder needs. It also is the regulator responsible for monitoring and enforcing the IFR in the U.K. Outside the U.K., in relation to IFR, Visa is also subject to compliance monitoring by national competent authorities in all markets. The IFR regulates interchange rates within Europe, requires Visa Europe to separate its payment card scheme activities from processing activities for accounting, organization and decision making purposes within the E.U. and imposes limitations on network exclusivity and routing.
There are other regulations in the E.U. that impact our business, as discussed above, including, privacy and data protection, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism and sanctions. Other recent regulatory changes in Europe such as the PSD2 could reduce perceived barriers to entry for emerging, non-card payments.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act) and its rules and regulations. The Exchange Act requires us to file periodic reports, proxy statements and other information with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies of these reports, proxy statements and other information can be viewed at http://www.sec.gov. Our corporate website is accessible at http://corporate.visa.com. We make available, free of charge, on our investor relations website at http://investor.visa.com our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. We also may include supplemental financial information on our investor relations website at http://investor.visa.com and may use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor such portions of our investor relations website, in addition to following SEC filings and publicly available conference calls. The information contained on, or accessible through, our corporate website, including the information contained on our investor relations website, is not incorporated by reference into this report or any other report filed with, or furnished to, the SEC.
ITEM 1A. Risk Factors
Regulatory Risks
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Increased regulation of the global payments industry, including with respect to interchange reimbursement fees, operating rules and related practices, could harm our business.
Regulators around the world have been establishing or increasing their authority to regulate certain aspects of the payments industry. See Item 1. Business —Government Regulation for more information. In the U.S. and many other jurisdictions, we have historically set default interchange reimbursement fees. Even though we generally do not receive any revenue related to interchange reimbursement fees in a purchase transaction (those fees are paid by the acquirers to the issuers), interchange reimbursement fees are a factor on which we compete with other payments providers and are therefore an important determinant of the volume of transactions we process. Consequently, changes to these fees, whether voluntarily or by mandate, can substantially affect our overall payments volumes and revenues.
Interchange reimbursement fees, certain operating rules and related practices continue to be subject to increased government regulation globally, and regulatory authorities and central banks in a number of jurisdictions have reviewed or are reviewing these fees, rules and practices. For example, in 2011, in accordance with the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act, the U.S. Federal Reserve capped the maximum U.S. debit interchange reimbursement rate received by large financial institutions at 21 cents plus 5 basis points, plus a possible fraud adjustment of 1 cent. This amounted to a significant reduction in the average system-wide interchange reimbursement fees received by large issuers. The Dodd-Frank Act also limited issuers' and our ability to adopt network exclusivity and preferred routing in the debit and prepaid area, which also impacted our business. In 2015, the E.U.’s IFR placed an effective cap on consumer credit and consumer debit interchange fees for both domestic and cross border transactions (30 basis points and 20 basis points, respectively), significantly reducing the fees received by E.U. issuers. E.U. Member States have the ability to further restrict these interchange levels within their territories. More recently, in September 2016, Argentina's Senate approved a bill to reduce existing caps on the merchant discount rate charged by acquirers to 1.5% for credit transactions and zero for debit transactions.
In addition to the regulation of interchange reimbursement fees, a number of regulators impose restrictions on other aspects of our payments business. For example, government regulations or pressure may require or allow other networks to be supported by Visa products or services or to have the other network's functionality or brand marks on our products. As innovations in payment technology have enabled us to expand into new products and services, they have also expanded the potential scope of regulatory influence. In addition, the E.U.’s requirement to separate scheme and processing adds costs and could impact the efficient integration of Visa Europe; the execution of our commercial, innovation and product strategies; our ability to provide effective customer service; and the amount of data available for use in fraud and risk systems and loyalty services.
We are also subject to central bank oversight in the U.K. and the E.U. This oversight could result in new governance, reporting, licensing, cybersecurity, processing infrastructure, capital or credit risk management requirements. We could also be required to adopt policies and practices designed to mitigate settlement and liquidity risks, including increased requirements to maintain sufficient levels of capital and financial resources locally. Increased central bank oversight could also lead to new or different criteria for financial institution participation in, and access to our payments system. Additionally, regulators in other jurisdictions are considering or adopting approaches based on similar regulatory principles.
Regulators around the world increasingly take note of each other’s approaches to regulating the payments industry. Consequently, a development in one jurisdiction may influence regulatory approaches in another. The risks created by a new law or regulation in one jurisdiction have the potential to be replicated and to negatively affect our business in another jurisdiction or in other product offerings. The U.S. Dodd-Frank Act and the E.U. IFR are developments with such potential, as are approaches taken by regulators in Australia, Canada and other countries. See Note 20—Legal Matters of this report. Similarly, new regulations involving one product offering may prompt regulators to extend the regulations to other product offerings. For example, credit payments could become subject to the same regulation as debit payments. Additionally, regulation in an individual country could continue and expand. For example, in Australia the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) initially capped credit interchange, but subsequently capped debit interchange as well.
When we cannot set default interchange reimbursement rates at optimal levels, issuers and acquirers may find our payments system less attractive. This may increase the attractiveness of other payments systems, such as our competitors' closed-loop payments systems with direct connections to both merchants and consumers. We believe some issuers may react to such regulations by charging new or higher fees to consumers, making our products less appealing to consumers. Some acquirers may elect to charge higher merchant discount rates regardless of the Visa interchange reimbursement rate, causing merchants not to accept our products or to steer customers to alternate
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payments systems or forms of payment. In addition, in an effort to reduce the expense of their card programs, some issuers and acquirers have obtained, and may continue to obtain, incentives from us and reductions in the fees that we charge, which may directly impact our revenues. For these reasons, increased global regulation of the payments industry may make our products less desirable, diminish our ability to compete, reduce our transaction volumes and harm our business.
Government-imposed restrictions on payment systems may prevent us from competing against providers in certain countries.
Governments in various jurisdictions, such as in Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Countries in the Middle East, protect certain domestic payment card networks, brands and processors. These governments may impose regulatory requirements that favor domestic providers or that mandate domestic payments processing be done entirely in that country, which would prevent us from overseeing the end-to-end processing of certain transactions. In China, for example, UnionPay continues to enjoy advantages over other international networks, remains the sole processor of domestic payment card transactions and operates the sole domestic acceptance mark. Though the Chinese State Council has announced that international schemes, such as Visa would be able to participate in the domestic market and be eligible to apply for a license to operate a Bank Card Clearing Institution (BCCI) in China, the full implementation guidelines for BCCI’s have yet to be finalized. In Russia, legislation has effectively prevented us from processing in the domestic market and mandated that we migrate our domestic processing business to the state-owned NSPK (or national payment card system), which is the only entity allowed to process domestically.
Due to our inability to oversee the end-to-end processing of transactions for cards carrying our brands in these countries, we depend on our close working relationships with our clients or third party processors in these regions to ensure transactions involving our products are processed effectively. National laws that protect domestic processing may increase our costs, decrease the number of Visa products issued or processed, impede us from utilizing our global processing capabilities and control the quality of the services supporting our brands, restrict our activities, force us to leave countries or prevent us from entering new markets, all of which could harm our ability to operate our business, maintain or increase our revenues globally and extend our global brands.
We are subject to complex and evolving global regulations that could harm our business and financial results.
As a global payments technology company, we are subject to complex and evolving regulations that govern our operations. See Item 1—Business—Government Regulation for more information on the most significant areas of regulation that affect our business. The impact of these regulations on us (and on our clients and other third parties) could limit our ability to enforce our payments system rules or require us to adopt new rules or change existing rules, and it may increase our compliance costs and reduce our revenue opportunities. We may face differing rules and regulations in matters like interchange reimbursement rates, preferred routing, domestic processing requirements, currency conversion, point-of-sale transaction rules and practices, privacy, data use or protection and associated product technology. As a result, the Visa Rules and our other contractual commitments may differ from country to country or by product offering. Complying with these and other regulations increases our costs and can reduce our revenue opportunities. Further, as regulations change, they may affect our existing contractual arrangements.
If widely varying regulations come into existence worldwide, we may have difficulty rapidly adjusting our product offerings, services and fees, and other important aspects of our business in the various regions where we operate. Our compliance programs and policies are designed to support our compliance with a wide array of regulations and laws, and we continually enhance our compliance programs as regulations evolve. However, we cannot guarantee that our practices will be deemed compliant by all applicable regulatory authorities. In the event our controls should fail or we are found to be out of compliance for other reasons, we could be subject to monetary damages, civil and criminal penalties, litigation and damage to our global brands and reputation. Furthermore, the evolving and increased regulatory focus on the payments industry could reduce the number of Visa products our clients issue, the volume of payments we process and our revenue; negatively impact our brands and our competitive positioning; and limit the types of products and services that we offer, the countries in which our products are used and the types of customers and merchants who can obtain or accept our products, all of which could harm our business.
We may be subject to tax examinations or disputes, or changes in the tax laws.
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We exercise significant judgment in calculating our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, many factors may limit their accuracy. We are currently under examination by, or in disputes with, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the U.K.’s HM Revenue & Customs as well as tax authorities in other jurisdictions, and we may be subject to additional examinations or disputes in the future. Relevant tax authorities may disagree with our tax treatment of certain material items and thereby increase our tax liability. Failure to sustain our position in these matters could harm our cash flow and financial position. In addition, changes in existing laws, such as recent proposals for fundamental U.S. and international tax reform or those resulting from the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project being conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, may also increase our effective tax rate. A substantial increase in our tax payments could have a material, adverse effect on our financial results. See also Note 19—Income Taxes to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this report.
Litigation Risks
We may be adversely affected by the outcome of litigation or investigations, despite certain protections that are in place.
We are involved in numerous civil actions and government investigations alleging violations of competition and antitrust law, consumer protection law and intellectual property law, among others. Details of the claims and the status of those proceedings are described more fully in Note 20—Legal Matters. Legal and regulatory proceedings and investigations are inherently uncertain, expensive and disruptive to our operations. In the event we are found liable in any material litigation, proceedings or investigations, particularly in a large class action lawsuit or an antitrust claim entitling the plaintiff to treble damages, we may be required to pay significant awards or settlements. In addition, settlement terms, judgments or pressures resulting from legal proceedings or investigations may require us, to modify the default interchange reimbursement rates we set, revise the Visa Rules or the way in which we enforce our rules, modify our fees or pricing, or modify the way we do business, which may harm our business. Finally, we are required by some of our commercial agreements to indemnify other entities for litigation asserted against them, even if Visa is not a defendant.
For certain litigation matters like the U.S. covered litigation and the VE territory covered litigation, which are described in Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans and Note 20—Legal Matters, we have certain protections provided for in the respective retrospective responsibility plans. The two retrospective responsibility plans are different in the protections they provide and the mechanisms by which we are able to either fund the settlements and judgments in the case of the U.S. covered litigation or recoup covered losses in the case of the VE territory covered litigation. The failure of one or both of the retrospective responsibility plans to adequately insulate us from the impact of such settlements, judgments, losses or liabilities could materially harm our financial condition or cash flows, or even cause us to become insolvent.
Business Risks
We face intense competition in our industry.
The global payments space is intensely competitive. As technology evolves, new competitors emerge and existing clients and competitors assume different roles. Our products compete with cash, checks, electronic funds, virtual currency payments, global or multi-regional networks, other closed-loop payments systems, and alternative payment providers primarily focused on enabling payments through ecommerce and mobile channels. As the global payments space becomes more complex, we face increasing competition from our clients, emerging payment providers and other digital and technology companies. Many of these providers have developed payments systems enabled through online activity in ecommerce and mobile channels, and are seeking to expand into other channels that compete with or replace our products and services.
Additionally, some of our competitors may develop substantially better technology, more widely adopted delivery channels or have greater financial resources. They may offer a wider range of programs, products and services, including some that are more innovative. They may use advertising and marketing strategies that are more effective than ours, achieving broader brand recognition, and greater issuance and merchant acceptance. They may also develop better security solutions or more favorable pricing arrangements.
Certain of our competitors operate with different business models, have different cost structures or participate in different market segments. Those business models may ultimately prove more successful or more adaptable to
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regulatory, technological and other developments. In some cases, these competitors have the support of government mandates that prohibit, limit or otherwise hinder our ability to compete for transactions within certain countries and regions.
Some of our competitors, including American Express, Discover, private-label card networks, virtual currency providers, technology companies that enable the exchange of digital assets and certain alternate payments systems, operate closed-loop payments systems, with direct connections to both merchants and consumers. Government actions or initiatives such as the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act or the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments initiatives may provide them with increased opportunities to derive competitive advantages from these business models. Similarly, regulation in Europe under PSD2 and in the U.K. through the PSR may require us to open up access to, and allow participation in, our network to additional participants, and reduce the infrastructure investment and regulatory burden on potential competitors. We also run the risk of disintermediation due to factors such as emerging technologies, including mobile payments, alternate payment credentials, other ledger technologies or payment forms, and by virtue of increasing bilateral agreements between entities that prefer not to use our payments network for processing payments. For example, merchants could process transactions directly with issuers, or processors could process transactions directly with issuers and acquirers.
We expect the competitive landscape to continue to shift and evolve. For example:
• | competitors, clients and others are developing alternative payment networks or products that could disintermediate us from the transaction processing or the value-added services we provide to support such processing. Examples include initiatives like The Clearing House, an ACH-based payment system comprised of large financial institutions, and EWS, an alternative to an ACH payment system that provides faster funds or real-time payments across P2P, corporate and government disbursement, bill pay and deposit check transactions; |
• | similarly, multiple countries are developing or promoting ACH-based real-time payment systems or mandating local networks with clients that also present a risk of disintermediation to our business; |
• | parties that process our transactions may try to minimize or eliminate our position in the payments value chain; |
• | parties that access our payment credentials, tokens and technologies, including clients, technology solution providers or others might be able to migrate account holders and other clients to alternate payment methods or utilize our payment credentials, tokens and technologies to establish or help bolster alternate payment methods and platforms; |
• | competitors, clients and others may develop methods to use our payment credentials, tokens and technologies to compete with, impair or replace digital payment products that use and support our network and processing over our network; |
• | we may need to adjust our local rules and practices to remain competitive amidst evolving regulatory landscapes and competitors’ practices; |
• | we may be asked to develop or customize certain aspects of our payment services for use by our customers, processors or other third parties, thereby increasing operational costs; |
• | we may need to agree to business arrangements with terms less protective of Visa’s proprietary technology and interests in order to compete with others, including those with issuers and with competing networks; |
• | participants in the payments industry may merge, form joint ventures or enable or enter into other business combinations that strengthen their existing business propositions or create new, competing payment services; |
• | competition may increase from alternate types of payment services, such as mobile payment services, ecommerce payment services, P2P payment services, faster payment initiatives and payment services that permit ACH payments or direct debit of consumer checking accounts; |
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• | new players and intermediaries in the payments value chain may redirect transactions or steer participants away from our network; |
• | we may face increasing risk of others asserting their intellectual property rights and potential litigation, as market entrants include technology companies and companies from industries where patent rights are actively asserted; |
• | as this landscape is quickly evolving, we may not be able to foresee or respond sufficiently to emerging risks associated with new business, products, services and practices; or |
• | new or revised industry standards related to EMV-chip payment technology, cloud-based payments, tokenization or other technologies set by organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization, American National Standards Institute and EMVCo may result in additional costs and expenses for Visa and its clients, or otherwise negatively impact the functionality and competitiveness of our products and services. |
Our failure to compete effectively in light of any such developments could harm our business and prospects for future growth.
Our revenues and profits are dependent on our client and merchant base, which may be costly to win, retain and maintain.
Our financial institution clients and merchants can reassess their commitments to us at any time or develop their own competitive services. While we have certain contractual protections, our clients, including some of our largest clients, generally have flexibility to issue non-Visa products. Further, in certain circumstances, our financial institution clients may decide to terminate our contractual relationship on relatively short notice without paying significant early termination fees. Because a significant portion of our operating revenues is concentrated among our largest clients, the loss of business from any one of these larger clients could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
In order to stay competitive, we offer incentives to our clients to increase payments volume, enter new market segments and expand their use and acceptance of Visa products and services. These include up-front cash payments, fee discounts and rebates, credits, performance-based incentives, marketing and other support payments that impact our revenues and profitability. In addition, we offer incentives to certain merchants or acquirers to win routing preference in situations where other network functionality is enabled on our products and there is a choice of network routing options. Market pressures on providing incentives, fee discounts and rebates could moderate our growth. If we are not able to implement cost containment and productivity initiatives in other areas of our business or increase our volumes in other ways to offset the financial impact of these incentives, fee discounts and rebates, it may harm our net revenues and profits.
In addition, it may be difficult or costly for us to acquire or conduct business with financial institutions or merchants that have longstanding exclusive, or nearly exclusive, relationships with our competitors. These financial institutions or merchants may be more successful and may grow more quickly than our existing clients or merchants. In addition, if there is a consolidation or acquisition of one or more of our largest clients or co-brand partners by a financial institution client or merchant with a strong relationship with one of our competitors, it could result in our business shifting to a competitor, which could put us at a competitive disadvantage and harm our business.
Merchants' and processors' continued push to lower acceptance costs and challenge industry practices could harm our business.
We rely in part on merchants and their relationships with our clients to maintain and expand the acceptance of Visa products. Certain large retail merchants have been exercising their influence in the global payments system to attempt to lower their acceptance costs by lobbying for new legislation, seeking regulatory enforcement, filing lawsuits and in some cases, refusing to accept Visa products. If they are successful in their efforts, we may face increased compliance and litigation expenses and issuers may decrease their issuance of our products. In the U.S., the cost of payment card acceptance has emerged in the context of payment security. A number of merchant trade associations claim that EMV cards without PIN cardholder verification are not worth the investment. The October 2015 liability shift and ongoing transition to EMV resulted in calls for a PIN verification mandate. More recently, U.S. merchant-affiliated groups and processors have expressed concerns regarding the EMV certification process. Some
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policymakers have called upon U.S. competition authorities to consider potential concerns arising from the roles of industry bodies such as EMVCo and the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. Additionally, some merchants and processors have pushed for changes to industry practices and our requirements for Visa acceptance at the point of sale, including the ability for merchants to accept only certain types of Visa products, to mandate only PIN authenticated transaction, to differentiate or steer among Visa product types issued by different financial institutions, and to impose surcharges on customers presenting Visa products as their form of payment. If successful, these efforts could adversely impact consumers' usage of our products, lead to regulatory enforcement and/or litigation, increase our compliance and litigation expenses, and harm our business.
We depend on relationships with our financial institution clients, acquirers, merchants and other third parties.
We depend significantly on relationships with our financial institution clients and on their relationships with customers and merchants to support our programs and services and thereby compete effectively in the marketplace. Our relationships with industry participants are complex and require us to balance the interests of multiple third parties. For example, in the U.S., the EMV migration has been resisted by certain merchants, leading to conflicts and litigation concerning the timing and scope of the liability shift, chargebacks and debit routing, among others.
We engage in discussions with merchants, acquirers and processors to provide incentives to promote routing preference and acceptance growth. We engage in many payment card co-branding efforts with merchants, who receive incentives from us. As these and other relationships become more prevalent and take on a greater importance to our business, our success will increasingly depend on our ability to continue to engage in these discussions in order to sustain and grow these relationships.
In addition, we depend on third parties, including suppliers, and our financial institution clients to provide various services associated with our payments network, on our behalf. To the extent that such parties fail to perform or deliver adequate services, our business and reputation could be harmed.
If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brands, if events occur that damage our reputation or brands or we experience brand disintermediation, it could harm our business.
Our brands are globally recognized and are key assets of our business. We believe that our clients and customers associate our brands with acceptance, security, convenience and universality. Our success depends in large part on our ability to maintain the value of our brands and reputation of our products and services in the payments ecosystem, elevate the brand through new and existing products, services and partnerships, and uphold our corporate reputation. The increased use or popularity of products that we have developed in partnership with large technology and financial institution companies could result in consumer confusion or brand disintermediation and decrease the value of our brand. In addition, our brands and reputation may be negatively impacted by a number of factors, including data security breaches, compliance failures, negative perception of our industry or the industries of our clients, actions by clients or other third parties, such as sponsorship partners, that do not reflect our views or are inconsistent with our own business practices, and fraudulent or other illegal activity using our payment products. If we are unable to maintain our reputation, or if events occur that damage our reputation, the value of our brands may be impaired, which could harm our relationships with clients, customers and the public, as well as impact our business.
Global economic, political, market and social events or conditions may harm our business.
Our revenues are dependent on the volume and number of payment transactions made by customers, governments and businesses, whose spending patterns may be affected by prevailing economic conditions. In addition, almost half of our operating revenues are earned outside the U.S. International transaction revenues represent a significant part of our revenue and are an important part of our growth strategy. Therefore, adverse macroeconomic conditions, including recessions, inflation, high unemployment, currency fluctuations, actual or anticipated large-scale defaults or failures, or slowdown of global trade, could decrease consumer and corporate confidence and reduce consumer, government and corporate spending, which have a direct impact on our revenues. In addition, outbreaks of illnesses, pandemics or other local or global health issues like the Zika virus, political uncertainties like Brexit, international hostilities, armed conflict, or unrest, and natural disasters could impact our operations, our clients and our activities in a particular location. These events could also reduce cross-border travel and spend, which impacts our international transaction revenues, which are generated by processing cross-border payments and cash volume transactions, as well as from foreign currency exchange transactions. Any
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such decline in cross-border activity could impact the number of cross-border transactions we process and our foreign currency exchange activities, and in turn reduce our revenues.
A decline in economic conditions could impact our clients as well, and their decisions to reduce the number of cards, accounts and credit lines of their account holders, which ultimately impact our revenues. They may also implement cost-reduction initiatives that reduce or eliminate marketing budgets, and decrease spending on optional or enhanced, value-added services from us.
Any events or conditions that impair the functioning of the financial markets, tighten the credit market or lead to a downgrade of our current credit rating could increase our future borrowing costs and impair our ability to access the capital and credit markets on favorable terms, which could affect our liquidity and capital resources, or significantly increase our cost of capital. If clients default on their settlement obligations, it may also impact our liquidity. Any of these events could adversely affect the growth of our volumes and revenue.
Our indemnification obligation to fund settlement losses of our clients exposes us to significant risk of loss and may reduce our liquidity.
We indemnify issuers and acquirers for any settlement loss they suffer due to the failure of another issuer or acquirer to honor its settlement obligations in accordance with the Visa Rules. In certain instances, we may indemnify issuers or acquirers even in situations in which a transaction is not processed by our system. This indemnification creates settlement risk for us due to the difference in timing between the date of a payment transaction and the date of subsequent settlement. Our indemnification exposure is generally limited to the amount of unsettled Visa payment transactions at any point in time. Concurrent settlement failures involving more than one of our largest clients, several of our smaller clients or systemic operational failures lasting more than a single day could cause us to exceed our available financial resources, which could negatively impact our financial position. Even if we have sufficient liquidity to cover a settlement failure, we may be unable to recover the amount of such payment. This could expose us to significant losses and harm our business. See Note 11—Settlement Guarantee Management to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this report.
The United Kingdom’s proposed withdrawal from the European Union could harm our business and financial results.
In June 2016, a referendum was held in the United Kingdom to determine whether the country should remain a member of the E.U., with voters approving withdrawal from the E.U. (commonly referred to as Brexit). The U.K. government is working towards triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which will commence the official E.U. withdrawal process. Uncertainty over the terms of the U.K.’s departure from the E.U. could harm our business and financial results. In addition, other E.U. member countries may consider referendums regarding their E.U. membership. Any of these events, along with any political changes that may occur as a result of Brexit, could cause political and economic uncertainty in Europe. As a result, our operations in the U.K., resulting from the recent acquisition of Visa Europe, as well as our global operations, could be impacted.
The announcement of Brexit caused significant volatility in global stock markets and currency exchange rate fluctuations that resulted in the strengthening of the U.S. dollar. The strengthening of the U.S. dollar relative to the British pound and other currencies may harm our results of operations as the local currency results of our international operations may translate into fewer U.S. dollars. Uncertainty over Brexit and currency fluctuations could also impact our clients, who may curtail or postpone investments in growing their credit portfolios, limit credit lines, modify fees and loyalty programs, or take other actions that harm our volume and revenue.
In addition, Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations in the U.K. and E.U. We, as well as our clients who have significant operations in the U.K., may incur additional costs and expenses as we adapt to potentially divergent regulatory frameworks from the rest of the E.U. and as a result, our Visa Rules and contractual commitments in the U.K. may be impacted. In addition, because we conduct business in and have operations in the U.K., we may need to apply for regulatory authorization and permission in separate E.U. Member States. These factors may impact our ability to operate in the E.U. and U.K. seamlessly. Any of these effects of Brexit, among others, could harm our business and financial results.
Technology and Information Security Risks
Failure to anticipate, adapt to or keep pace with new technologies in the payments industry could harm our business and impact our future growth.
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The global payments industry is undergoing significant and rapid technological change, including mobile and other proximity payment and acceptance technologies, ecommerce, tokenization, crypto-currency, distributed ledger and blockchain technologies, and as a result we expect new services and technologies to continue to emerge and evolve. In addition to our own initiatives and innovations, we work closely with third parties, including some potential competitors, for the development of and access to new technologies. It is difficult, however, to predict which technological developments or innovations will become widely adopted. It is also difficult to predict how these technologies may be regulated. Moreover, some of these new technologies could be subject to intellectual property-related lawsuits or assertions, potentially impacting our development efforts and/or requiring us to obtain licenses. If we or our partners fail to adapt or keep pace with new technologies in the payments space in a timely manner, it could harm our ability to compete, decrease the value of our products and services to our clients, impact our intellectual property or licensing rights, and harm our business and impact our future growth.
A failure in or breach of our networks or systems, including as a result of cyber-attacks, could harm our business.
Our information security and processing systems, as well as those of our clients, merchants and other third-party service providers, may experience damage or disruption from a number of causes, including power outages, computer and telecommunication failures, computer viruses, worms or other destructive software, internal design, manual or usage errors, cyber-attacks, terrorism, workplace violence or wrongdoing, catastrophic events, natural disasters and severe weather conditions. Our visibility and role in the global payments industry may also put us at a greater risk of being targeted by hackers. In the normal course of our business, we have been the target of malicious cyber-attack attempts. Additionally, several merchants have encountered substantial cybersecurity breaches and re-breaches affecting their customers, some of whom were Visa account holders. Although these merchant breaches have not had a direct, material impact on us, we believe these incidents are likely to continue and we may be unable to predict the direct or indirect impact of these future attacks to our business. We may also be impacted by breaches of our financial institution clients and third-party processors that affect the broader payment system.
In addition, numerous and evolving information security threats, including advanced and persistent cyber-attacks, particularly on our internet-facing and reliant applications, could compromise the confidentiality, availability and integrity of our data. The security measures and procedures we, our clients, merchants and other service providers have in place to protect sensitive account holder data and other information may not be successful or sufficient to counter all data breaches, cyber-attacks or system failures. Although we devote significant resources to our information security program and have implemented security measures to protect our systems and data, there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent these known or unknown threats.
If we are sued in connection with any data security breach, we could be involved in protracted litigation. If unsuccessful in defending such lawsuits, we may have to pay damages or change our business practices, any of which could harm our business. In addition, any reputational damage resulting from an account data breach, cyber-attack or system failure at one or more of our clients, merchants or other third parties could decrease the use and acceptance of our products, which could harm our payments volume, revenues and future growth prospects. Finally, a breach may also subject Visa to additional regulations or governmental or regulatory investigations, which could result in significant compliance costs, fines or enforcement actions or potential restrictions imposed by regulators on our ability to process transactions.
We may experience errors, interruptions, delays or cessations of service in our information technology infrastructure and processing systems, which could significantly disrupt our operations; impact our clients and customers; damage our reputation; result in litigation, violations of applicable privacy and other laws, and regulatory fines or penalties; decrease the overall use and acceptance of our products; and be costly, time consuming and difficult to remedy. In the event of damage or disruption to our business due to these occurrences, we may not be able to successfully and quickly recover all of our critical business functions, assets and data through our current business continuity program. Furthermore, while we maintain insurance, our coverage may not sufficiently cover all types of losses or claims that may arise.
Structural and Organizational Risks
Failure to maintain interoperability with Visa Europe's systems during the integration phase of our acquisition could damage the business and global perception of our brands.
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While Visa Europe's systems are being integrated with our legacy systems, we and Visa Europe will continue to maintain mostly separate authorization, clearing and settlement systems. As a result, we have to ensure that the two systems can process every transaction involving both of our territories, regardless of where it originates. Visa Europe's independent system operations could present challenges to our business in the event of increasing costs or difficulties in maintaining the interoperability of our respective systems during the integration phase. The separation of payment card scheme and processing may also exacerbate this risk. Any inconsistency in the payment processing services and products between Visa Europe and our legacy operations could negatively affect the experience of customers using Visa products globally. Failure to authorize, clear and settle inter-territory transactions quickly and accurately could harm our business and impair the global perception of our brands.
We may not achieve the anticipated benefits of the Visa Europe acquisition or those of our other strategic investments or acquisitions, and may face other risks and uncertainties as a result.
In June 2016, we acquired 100% of the share capital of Visa Europe. We believe the acquisition positions us to create additional value through increased scale, efficiencies realized by the integration of both businesses, and benefits related to Visa Europe’s transition from an association to a for-profit enterprise, although there can be no guarantee that we will realize these benefits. In addition, we may make other strategic investments or acquisitions, which like the Visa Europe acquisition are inherently risky and subject to many factors outside our control. The Visa Europe acquisition involves, and any future strategic endeavors may involve, significant risks and uncertainties, which could include:
• | disruption to our ongoing business, including diversion of resources and management’s attention from our existing business; |
• | greater than expected investment of resources or operating expenses; |
• | failure to develop the acquired business adequately; |
• | difficulty implementing controls, procedures and policies at the acquired company; |
• | challenges of integrating new employees, business cultures, business systems and technology; |
• | failure to retain employees, clients or partners of the acquired business; |
• | in the case of foreign acquisitions such as the acquisition of Visa Europe, risks related to the integration of operations across different cultures and languages, and the economic, political and regulatory risks associated with operating in new regions or countries. For more information on regulatory risks, please see Item 1—Business—Government Regulations and Item 1A—Risk Factors—Regulatory Risks above; |
• | discovery of unidentified issues after the acquisition or investment was made; |
• | failure to mitigate the liabilities of the acquired business; for example, while we have attempted to mitigate the risk of loss associated with certain Visa Europe litigation through the issuance of the preferred stock, there can be no guarantee that the liabilities associated with that litigation will not exceed the value of such preferred stock; |
• | dilutive issuance of equity securities, if new securities are issued; |
• | potential incurrence of debt, including the substantial amount of debt incurred in connection with the Visa Europe acquisition; |
• | negative impact on our financial position and/or statement of operations; and |
• | anticipated benefits or value of the investment or acquisition not materializing. |
We may be unable to attract, hire and retain a highly qualified and diverse workforce, including key management.
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The talents and efforts of our employees, particularly our key management, are vital to our success. Our management team has significant industry experience and would be difficult to replace. We may be unable to retain them or to attract other highly qualified employees, particularly if we do not offer employment terms that are competitive with the rest of the labor market. Failure to attract, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified and diverse employee talent, or failure to develop and implement an adequate succession plan for the management team, could disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business and our future success.
The conversions of our class B and class C common stock or series B and series C preferred stock into shares of class A common stock would result in voting dilution to, and could impact the market price of, our existing class A common stock.
The market price of our class A common stock could fall as a result of many factors. Under our U.S. retrospective responsibility plan, upon final resolution of our U.S. covered litigation, all class B common stock will become convertible into class A common stock. In connection with the acquisition of Visa Europe, we issued series B and series C preferred stock, which will become convertible into class A common stock in stages based on developments in current and potential litigation and will become fully convertible no later than 2028 (subject to a holdback to cover any pending claims). Conversion of our class B and class C common stock into class A common stock, or our series B and series C preferred stock into class A common stock, would increase the amount of class A common stock outstanding, which could adversely affect the market price of our existing class A common stock and would dilute the voting power of existing class A common stockholders.
Holders of our class B and C common stock and series B and series C preferred stock may have different interests than our class A common stockholders concerning certain significant transactions.
Although their voting rights are limited, holders of our class B and C common stock and, in certain specified circumstances, holders of our series B and series C preferred stock, can vote on certain significant transactions. With respect to our class B and C common stock, these transactions include a proposed consolidation or merger, a decision to exit our core payments business and any other vote required under Delaware law. With respect to our series B and series C preferred stock, voting rights are limited to proposed consolidations or mergers in which holders of the series B and series C preferred stock would either (i) receive shares of stock or other equity securities with preferences, rights and privileges that are not substantially identical to the preferences, rights and privileges of the applicable series of preferred stock or (ii) receive securities, cash or other property that is different from what our class A common stockholders would receive. Because the holders of classes of capital stock other than class A common stock are our current and former financial institution clients, they may have interests that diverge from our class A common stockholders. As a result, the holders of these classes of capital stock may not have the same incentive to approve a corporate action that may be favorable to the holders of class A common stock, and their interests may otherwise conflict with interests of our class A common stockholders.
Delaware law, provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, and our capital structure could make a merger, takeover attempt or change in control difficult.
Provisions contained in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, and our capital structure could delay or prevent a merger, takeover attempt or change in control that our stockholders may consider favorable. For example, except for limited exceptions:
• | no person may beneficially own more than 15% of our class A common stock (or 15% of our total outstanding common stock on an as-converted basis), unless our board of directors approves the acquisition of such shares in advance; |
• | no competitor or an affiliate of a competitor may hold more than 5% of our total outstanding common stock on an as-converted basis; |
• | the affirmative votes of the class B and C common stock and series B and series C preferred stock are required for certain types of consolidations or mergers; |
• | our stockholders may only take action during a stockholders’ meeting and may not act by written consent; and |
• | only the board of directors, Chairman or CEO may call a special meeting of stockholders. |
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ITEM 1B. | Unresolved Staff Comments |
Not applicable.
ITEM 2. | Properties |
At September 30, 2016, we owned and leased approximately 3.9 million square feet of office and processing center space in 67 countries around the world, of which approximately 2.0 million square feet are owned and the remaining 1.9 million square feet are leased. Our corporate headquarters is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and consists of four buildings that we own, totaling 0.9 million square feet, and 0.1 million square feet of office space that we lease. We also own an office building in Miami, Florida, totaling approximately 0.2 million square feet.
In addition, we own and operate two primary processing centers with adjacent office facilities in the United States, totaling approximately 0.8 million square feet.
We believe that these facilities are suitable and adequate to support our ongoing business needs.
ITEM 3. | Legal Proceedings |
Refer to Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this report.
ITEM 4. | Mine Safety Disclosures |
Not applicable.
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PART II
ITEM 5. | Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities |
All per share amounts and number of shares presented below reflect the four-for-one stock split that was effected in the second quarter of fiscal 2015. See Note 14—Stockholders' Equity in Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of this report.
Price Range of Common Stock
Our class A common stock has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “V” since March 19, 2008. At November 9, 2016, we had 362 stockholders of record of our class A common stock. The number of beneficial owners is substantially greater than the number of record holders, because a large portion of our class A common stock is held in "street name" by banks and brokers. The following table sets forth the intra-day high and low sale prices for our class A common stock in each of our last eight fiscal quarters:
Fiscal 2016 | High | Low | |||||
First Quarter | $ | 81.01 | $ | 68.36 | |||
Second Quarter | $ | 77.00 | $ | 66.12 | |||
Third Quarter | $ | 81.73 | $ | 73.25 | |||
Fourth Quarter | $ | 83.79 | $ | 73.83 | |||
Fiscal 2015 | High | Low | |||||
First Quarter | $ | 67.33 | $ | 48.80 | |||
Second Quarter | $ | 69.66 | $ | 61.29 | |||
Third Quarter | $ | 70.69 | $ | 64.35 | |||
Fourth Quarter | $ | 76.92 | $ | 60.00 | |||
There is currently no established public trading market for our class B or class C common stock. There were 1,656 and 676 holders of record of our class B and class C common stock, respectively, as of November 9, 2016.
Dividend Declaration and Policy
During the fiscal years ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, we paid the following quarterly cash dividends per share of our class A common stock (determined in the case of class B and C common stock and U.K.&I and Europe preferred stock, on an as-converted basis) to all holders of record of our common and preferred stock on the respective record dates.
Fiscal 2016 | Dividend Per Share | ||
First Quarter | $ | 0.14 | |
Second Quarter | $ | 0.14 | |
Third Quarter | $ | 0.14 | |
Fourth Quarter | $ | 0.14 | |
Fiscal 2015 | Dividend Per Share | ||
First Quarter | $ | 0.12 | |
Second Quarter | $ | 0.12 | |
Third Quarter | $ | 0.12 | |
Fourth Quarter | $ | 0.12 | |
Additionally, in October 2016, our board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.165 per share of class A common stock (determined in the case of class B and C common stock and U.K.&I and Europe preferred
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stock on an as-converted basis) payable on December 6, 2016, to holders of record as of November 18, 2016 of our common and preferred stock.
Subject to legally available funds, we expect to continue paying quarterly cash dividends on our outstanding common and preferred stock in the future. However, the declaration and payment of future dividends is at the sole discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, settlement indemnifications, operating results, available cash and current and anticipated cash needs.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
The table below sets forth the Company's purchases of common stock during the quarter ended September 30, 2016.
Period | Total Number Of Shares Purchased (1) | Average Price Paid Per Share | Total Number Of Shares Purchased As Part Of Publicly Announced Plans Or Programs (2),(3) | Approximate Dollar Value Of Shares That May Yet Be Purchased Under The Plans Or Programs (2),(3) | ||||||||||
July 1-31, 2016 | 2,597,645 | $ | 77.65 | 2,574,980 | $ | 7,122,065,457 | ||||||||
August 1-31, 2016 | 8,280,851 | $ | 79.85 | 8,279,268 | $ | 6,460,797,525 | ||||||||
September 1-30, 2016 | 9,648,865 | $ | 82.37 | 9,648,865 | $ | 5,665,815,457 | ||||||||
Total | 20,527,361 | $ | 80.76 | 20,503,113 | ||||||||||
(1) | Includes 24,248 shares of class A common stock withheld at an average price of $78.23 per share (per the terms of grants under the Visa 2007 Equity Incentive Compensation Plan) to offset tax withholding obligations that occur upon vesting and release of restricted shares. |
(2) | The figures in the table reflect transactions according to the trade dates. For purposes of our consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K, the impact of these repurchases is recorded according to the settlement dates. |
(3) | Our board of directors from time to time authorizes the repurchase of shares of our common stock up to a certain monetary limit. In October 2015 and July 2016, our board of directors authorized share repurchase programs for $5.0 billion each. These authorizations have no expiration date. All share repurchase programs authorized prior to October 2015 have been completed. |
EQUITY COMPENSATION PLAN INFORMATION
The table below presents information as of September 30, 2016, for the Visa 2007 Equity Incentive Compensation Plan (the "EIP") and the Visa Inc. Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the "ESPP"), which were approved by our stockholders. We do not have any equity compensation plans that have not been approved by our stockholders. For a description of the awards issued under the EIP and the ESPP, see Note 16—Share-based Compensation to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of this report.
Plan Category | (a) Number Of Shares Of Class A Common Stock Issuable Upon Exercise Of Outstanding Options And Purchase Rights | Weighted-Average Exercise Price Of Outstanding Options And Purchase Rights | Number Of Shares Of Class A Common Stock Remaining Available For Future Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans (Excluding Shares Reflected In Column (a)) | |||||||
Equity compensation plans approved by stockholders | 9,221,389 | (1) | $ | 38.42 | (2) | 170,655,889 | (3) | |||
(1) | Includes 8,876,484 outstanding options under the EIP and 344,905 outstanding purchase rights under the ESPP. In addition, the EIP authorizes the issuance of restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance shares and other stock-based awards. The maximum number of shares issuable as of September 30, 2016, pursuant to outstanding restricted stock units and performance shares, totals 3,146,954 and 1,042,012, respectively. |
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(2) | Does not include the weighted-average exercise price of the outstanding purchase rights under the ESPP as the exercise price is based on the future stock price, net of discount, at the end of each monthly purchase over the offering period. |
(3) | In January 2015, the Company's class A stockholders approved the ESPP which permits eligible employees to purchase shares of Class A common stock at a 15% discount to the stock price on the purchase date, subject to certain restrictions. See Note 16—Share-based Compensation to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of this report. As of September 30, 2016, 152 million shares and 19 million shares were available for issuance under the EIP and the ESPP, respectively. |
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ITEM 6. | Selected Financial Data |
The following table presents selected Visa Inc. financial data for the past five fiscal years. The data below should be read in conjunction with Item 7—Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of this report.
Selected Financial Data
Fiscal Year Ended September 30, | ||||||||||||||||||||
Statement of Operations Data: | 2016 (1),(2) | 2015 (2),(3) | 2014 (2),(4) | 2013 (2) | 2012 (5) | |||||||||||||||
(in millions, except per share data) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Operating revenues | $ | 15,082 | $ | 13,880 | $ | 12,702 | $ | 11,778 | $ | 10,421 | ||||||||||
Operating expenses | $ | 7,199 | $ | 4,816 | $ | 5,005 | $ | 4,539 | $ | 8,282 | ||||||||||
Operating income | $ | 7,883 | $ | 9,064 | $ | 7,697 | $ | 7,239 | $ | 2,139 | ||||||||||
Net income | $ | 5,991 | $ | 6,328 | $ | 5,438 | $ | 4,980 | $ | 2,144 | ||||||||||
Basic earnings per share—class A common stock(6) | $ | 2.49 | $ | 2.58 | $ | 2.16 | $ | 1.90 | $ | 0.79 | ||||||||||
Diluted earnings per share—class A common stock(6) | $ | 2.48 | $ | 2.58 | $ | 2.16 | $ | 1.90 | $ | 0.79 | ||||||||||
At September 30, | ||||||||||||||||||||
Balance Sheet Data: | 2016 (2) | 2015 (2),(3) | 2014 (2),(4) | 2013 (2) | 2012 (5) | |||||||||||||||
(in millions, except per share data) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Total assets | $ | 64,035 | $ | 39,367 | $ | 37,543 | $ | 35,495 | $ | 38,002 | ||||||||||
Accrued litigation | $ | 981 | $ | 1,024 | $ | 1,456 | $ | 5 | $ | 4,386 | ||||||||||
Total equity | $ | 32,912 | $ | 29,842 | $ | 27,413 | $ | 26,870 | $ | 27,630 | ||||||||||
Dividend declared and paid per common share(6) | $ | 0.56 | $ | 0.48 | $ | 0.40 | $ | 0.33 | $ | 0.22 | ||||||||||
(1) | We did not include Visa Europe's financial results in our consolidated statement of operations from the acquisition date, June 21, 2016, through June 30, 2016 as the impact was immaterial. Our consolidated statement of operations for fiscal 2016 does include Visa Europe's financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2016. Further, our financial results for fiscal 2016 include the impact of several significant one-time items. See Overview within Item 7—Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations of this report. |
(2) | During fiscal 2013, we made payments from the U.S. litigation escrow account totaling $4.4 billion in connection with the U.S. covered litigation. During fiscal 2014, the court entered the final judgment order approving the settlement with the class plaintiffs in the interchange multidistrict litigation proceedings. Certain merchants in the settlement classes objected to the settlement and filed opt-out claims. Takedown payments of approximately $1.1 billion related to the opt-out merchants were received and deposited into the U.S. litigation escrow account, and a related increase in accrued litigation to address the opt-out claims were recorded in the second quarter of fiscal 2014. An additional accrual of $450 million associated with these opt-out claims was recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. Payments totaling $528 million were made from fiscal 2014 through 2016 from the U.S. litigation escrow account reflecting settlements with a number of individual opt-out merchants, resulting in an accrued balance of $978 million related to U.S. covered litigation as of September 30, 2016. See Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans and Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of this report. |
(3) | During fiscal 2015, we recorded a tax benefit of $296 million resulting from the resolution of uncertain tax positions with taxing authorities, of which $239 million relates to prior fiscal years. |
(4) | During fiscal 2014, we recorded a $264 million tax benefit related to a deduction for U.S. domestic production activities, of which $191 million was a one-time tax benefit related to prior fiscal years. |
(5) | During fiscal 2012, we recorded: a one-time, non-cash tax benefit of $208 million related to the remeasurement of our net deferred tax liabilities; a U.S. covered litigation provision of $4.1 billion and related tax benefits; and the reversal of previously recorded tax reserves and interest, which increased net income by $326 million. |
(6) | The per share amounts for the prior periods presented have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the four-for-one stock split effected in the fiscal second quarter of 2015. |
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ITEM 7. | Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
This management’s discussion and analysis provides a review of the results of operations, financial condition and liquidity and capital resources of Visa Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Visa,” “we,” "us," “our” and the “Company”) on a historical basis and outlines the factors that have affected recent earnings, as well as those factors that may affect future earnings. The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included in Item 8 of this report.
Overview
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We enable global commerce through the transfer of value and information among these participants. Our advanced transaction processing network facilitates authorization, clearing and settlement of payment transactions and enables us to provide our financial institution and merchant clients a wide range of products, platforms and value-added services.
Overall economic conditions. Our business is affected by overall economic conditions and consumer spending. Our business performance during fiscal 2016 reflects the impacts of continued uneven and tepid economic growth.
Visa Europe acquisition. On June 21, 2016, we acquired 100% of the share capital of Visa Europe. The purchase price consisted of: (a) at the closing of the transaction (Closing), up-front cash consideration of €12.2 billion ($13.9 billion) and preferred stock convertible upon certain conditions into class A common stock or class A equivalent preferred stock, equivalent to a value of €5.3 billion ($6.1 billion) at the closing stock price of $77.33 on June 21, 2016, and (b) following the third anniversary of the Closing, an additional €1.0 billion, plus 4% compound annual interest. The preferred stock conversion rates may be reduced from time to time to offset certain liabilities, if any, which may be incurred by us, Visa Europe or its affiliates as a result of certain existing and potential litigation relating to the setting of multilateral interchange fee rates in the Visa Europe territory before the Closing. As part of the acquisition, we also entered into the U.K. loss sharing agreement with Visa Europe and certain of Visa Europe’s members located in the United Kingdom to compensate us for certain losses which may be incurred by us or Visa Europe as a result of certain existing and potential litigation relating to the setting and implementation of domestic multilateral interchange fee rates in the United Kingdom before the Closing. Our consolidated balance sheets reflect the consolidation of Visa Europe as of September 30, 2016. We did not include Visa Europe's financial results in our consolidated statements of operations from the acquisition date, June 21, 2016, through June 30, 2016 as the impact was immaterial. Our consolidated statements of operations include the financial results of Visa Europe for the three months ended September 30, 2016. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe, Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans and Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements.
Debt issuance. In December 2015, we issued fixed-rate senior notes in an aggregate principal amount of $16.0 billion, with maturities ranging between 2 and 30 years. Interest on these notes, at a rate ranging between 1.20% and 4.30%, is payable semi-annually on June 14 and December 14, commencing June 14, 2016. The net aggregate proceeds of $15.9 billion, after deducting discounts and debt issuance costs, were used to fund the upfront cash portion of the purchase price for the acquisition of Visa Europe and for general corporate purposes, including share repurchases. See Note 4—Fair Value Measurements and Investments and Note 9—Debt to our consolidated financial statements.
Financial highlights. Our financial results for fiscal 2016 include the impact of several significant one-time items. Our as-reported U.S. GAAP and adjusted non-GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share are shown in the table below.
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Fiscal Year Ended September 30, | % Change(1) | ||||||||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | |||||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages) | |||||||||||||||||
Net income, as reported | $ | 5,991 | $ | 6,328 | $ | 5,438 | (5 | )% | 16 | % | |||||||
Diluted earnings per share, as reported(2) | $ | 2.48 | $ | 2.58 | $ | 2.16 | (4 | )% | 20 | % | |||||||
Net income, as adjusted(3) | $ | 6,862 | $ | 6,438 | $ | 5,721 | 7 | % | 13 | % | |||||||
Diluted earnings per share, as adjusted(2),(3) | $ | 2.84 | $ | 2.62 | $ | 2.27 | 8 | % | 16 | % | |||||||
(1) | Figures in the tables may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Percentage changes are calculated based on unrounded numbers. |
(2) | The per share amounts for the prior periods presented have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the four-for-one stock split effected in the fiscal second quarter of 2015. |
(3) | Adjusted net income and diluted earnings per share in fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014 exclude the impact of certain significant items that we believe are not indicative of our operating performance, as they are either non-recurring, have no cash impact or are covered by the U.S. retrospective responsibility plan. For a full reconciliation of our adjusted financial results, see tables in Adjusted financial results below. |
We recorded net operating revenues of $15.1 billion for fiscal 2016, an increase of 9% over the prior year driven by continued growth in processed transactions, nominal payments volume as well as the fiscal fourth quarter operating revenues of Visa Europe. The effect of exchange rate movements, as partially mitigated by our hedging program, resulted in a negative three percentage point impact to our total operating growth.
Total operating expenses for fiscal 2016 were $7.2 billion, compared to $4.8 billion in fiscal 2015. The increase over the prior year was primarily due to the $1.9 billion loss resulting from the effective settlement of the Framework Agreement between us and Visa Europe upon consummation of the transaction, combined with acquisition-related costs of approximately $152 million. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements.
During fiscal 2015 we recognized a tax benefit of $296 million resulting from the resolution of uncertain tax positions with taxing authorities. Of the $296 million benefit, $239 million relates to prior fiscal years. Our financial results for the year ended September 30, 2014 reflect a one-time tax benefit of $191 million associated with a deduction for U.S. domestic production activities related to prior fiscal years. See Note 19—Income Taxes to our consolidated financial statements.
Adjusted financial results. Our financial results for fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014 reflect the impact of certain significant items that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing operating performance in the prior or future years, as they are either non-recurring, have no cash impact or are covered by the U.S. retrospective responsibility plan. As such, we believe the presentation of adjusted financial results excluding the following items provides a clearer understanding of our operating performance for the periods presented.
• | Severance cost. In the fiscal fourth quarter, we recorded a $110 million charge for severance costs related to personnel reductions including planned reductions at Visa Europe. Although we routinely record severance expenses, these charges are larger than any past quarterly accrual due to the acquisition and integration of Visa Europe. Net of related tax benefit of $38 million, determined by applying applicable tax rates, the adjustment to net income was an increase of $72 million. |
• | Remeasurement of deferred tax liability. In September 2016, we recorded a non-cash, non-recurring $88 million gain upon the remeasurement of a deferred tax liability, recorded upon the acquisition of Visa Europe, to reflect a tax rate change in the United Kingdom. |
• | Acquisition-related costs. During fiscal 2016, we incurred $152 million of non-recurring acquisition costs in operating expense as a result of the Visa Europe transaction. This amount is comprised of $60 million of transaction expenses recorded in professional fees, and $92 million of U.K. stamp duty recorded in general and administrative expenses. Net of related tax benefit of $56 million, determined by applying applicable |
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federal and state tax rates, the adjustment to net income was an increase of $96 million. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements.
• | Visa Europe Framework Agreement loss. Upon consummation of the transaction, on June 21, 2016, we recorded a non-recurring loss of $1.9 billion, before tax, in operating expense resulting from the effective settlement of the Framework Agreement between us and Visa Europe. Net of related tax benefit of $693 million, determined by applying applicable federal and state tax rates, the adjustment to net income was an increase of $1.2 billion. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. |
• | Net gains on currency forward contracts. During fiscal 2016, we entered into currency forward contracts to mitigate a portion of our foreign currency exchange rate risk associated with the upfront cash consideration paid in the Visa Europe acquisition. As a result, we recorded non-recurring, net gains of $74 million, before tax, in other non-operating income. Net of related tax expense of $27 million, determined by applying applicable federal and state tax rates, the adjustment to net income was a decrease of $47 million. See Note 12—Derivative and Non-derivative Financial Instruments to our consolidated financial statements. |
• | Foreign exchange gain on euro deposits. During fiscal 2016, we recorded a non-recurring foreign exchange gain of $145 million, before tax, in other non-operating income as a result of holding euro-denominated bank balances for a short period in advance of the Closing. Net of related tax expense of $54 million, determined by applying applicable federal and state tax rates, the impact to net income was a decrease of $91 million. |
• | Revaluation of Visa Europe put option. During the first quarter of fiscal 2016 and the third quarter of fiscal 2015, we recorded a decrease of $255 million and an increase of $110 million, respectively, in the fair value of the Visa Europe put option, resulting in the recognition of non-cash income and expense in other non-operating income. These amounts are not subject to income tax and therefore have no impact on our reported income tax provision. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe and Note 4—Fair Value Measurements and Investments to our consolidated financial statements. |
• | Litigation provision. During fiscal 2014, we recorded a litigation provision of $450 million and related tax benefits of $167 million associated with the U.S. interchange multidistrict litigation. The tax impact is determined by applying applicable federal and state tax rates to the litigation provision. Monetary liabilities from settlements of, or judgments in, the U.S. covered litigation will be paid from the U.S. litigation escrow account. See Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans and Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements. |
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Adjusted operating expenses, operating margin, non-operating income, income taxes, net income and diluted earnings per share are non-GAAP financial measures and should not be relied upon as substitutes for measures calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The following tables reconcile our as-reported financial measures calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP to the respective non-GAAP adjusted financial measures for fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014:
Fiscal 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages and per share data) | Operating Expenses | Operating Margin (1),(2) | Non-operating Income (Expense) | Income Taxes | Net Income | Diluted Earnings Per Share(2) | ||||||||||||||||
As reported | $ | 7,199 | 52 | % | $ | 129 | $ | 2,021 | $ | 5,991 | $ | 2.48 | ||||||||||
Severance cost | (110 | ) | 1 | % | — | 38 | 72 | 0.03 | ||||||||||||||
Remeasurement of deferred tax liability | — | — | % | — | 88 | (88 | ) | (0.04 | ) | |||||||||||||
Acquisition-related costs | (152 | ) | 1 | % | — | 56 | 96 | 0.04 | ||||||||||||||
Visa Europe Framework Agreement loss | (1,877 | ) | 12 | % | — | 693 | 1,184 | 0.49 | ||||||||||||||
Net gains on currency forward contracts | — | — | % | (74 | ) | (27 | ) | (47 | ) | (0.02 | ) | |||||||||||
Foreign exchange gain on euro deposits | — | — | % | (145 | ) | (54 | ) | (91 | ) | (0.04 | ) | |||||||||||
Revaluation of Visa Europe put option | — | — | % | (255 | ) | — | (255 | ) | (0.11 | ) | ||||||||||||
As adjusted | $ | 5,060 | 66 | % | $ | (345 | ) | $ | 2,815 | $ | 6,862 | $ | 2.84 | |||||||||
Diluted weighted-average shares outstanding, as reported | 2,414 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Fiscal 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages and per share data) | Operating Expenses | Operating Margin (1),(2) | Non-operating Income (Expense) | Income Taxes | Net Income | Diluted Earnings Per Share (2),(3) | ||||||||||||||||
As reported | $ | 4,816 | 65 | % | $ | (69 | ) | $ | 2,667 | $ | 6,328 | $ | 2.58 | |||||||||
Revaluation of Visa Europe put option | — | — | % | 110 | — | 110 | 0.04 | |||||||||||||||
As adjusted | $ | 4,816 | 65 | % | $ | 41 | $ | 2,667 | $ | 6,438 | $ | 2.62 | ||||||||||
Diluted weighted-average shares outstanding, as reported | 2,457 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Fiscal 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages and per share data) | Operating Expenses | Operating Margin (1),(2) | Non-operating Income (Expense) | Income Taxes | Net Income | Diluted Earnings Per Share (2),(3) | ||||||||||||||||
As reported | $ | 5,005 | 61 | % | $ | 27 | $ | 2,286 | $ | 5,438 | $ | 2.16 | ||||||||||
Litigation provision | (450 | ) | 4 | % | — | 167 | 283 | 0.11 | ||||||||||||||
As adjusted | $ | 4,555 | 64 | % | $ | 27 | $ | 2,453 | $ | 5,721 | $ | 2.27 | ||||||||||
Diluted weighted-average shares outstanding, as reported | 2,523 | |||||||||||||||||||||
(1) | Operating margin is calculated as operating income divided by net operating revenues. |
(2) | Figures in the table may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Operating margin and diluted earnings per share figures are calculated based on unrounded numbers. |
(3) | The per share amounts for the prior periods presented have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the four-for-one stock split effected in the fiscal second quarter of 2015. |
Common stock repurchases. During fiscal 2016, we repurchased 91 million shares of our class A common stock in the open market using $7.0 billion of cash on hand. As of September 30, 2016, we had remaining authorized funds of $5.8 billion. All share repurchase programs authorized prior to October 2015 have been completed. See Note 14—Stockholders' Equity to our consolidated financial statements.
Nominal payments volume and transaction counts. Payments volume is the primary driver for our service revenues, and the number of processed transactions is the primary driver for our data processing revenues.
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Nominal payments volume over the prior year posted strong growth in the U.S., driven mainly by consumer debit and credit. Nominal international payments volume was negatively impacted by the overall strengthening of the U.S. dollar. On a constant-dollar basis, which excludes the impact of exchange rate movements, our international payments volume growth rate for the 12 months ended June 30, 2016(1) and 2015 was 37% and 13%, respectively. Processed transactions sustained healthy growth reflecting the ongoing worldwide shift to electronic currency.
The following tables present nominal payments volume.(2)
United States | International | Visa Inc. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 months ended June 30,(1) | 12 months ended June 30,(1) | 12 months ended June 30,(1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | % Change | 2016 | 2015 | % Change | 2016 | 2015 | % Change | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
(in billions, except percentages) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nominal payments volume | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Consumer credit | $ | 1,080 | $ | 980 | 10 | % | $ | 1,720 | $ | 1,676 | 3 | % | $ | 2,799 | $ | 2,656 | 5 | % | ||||||||||||||
Consumer debit(3) | 1,320 | 1,202 | 10 | % | 454 | 462 | (2 | )% | 1,774 | 1,663 | 7 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||
Commercial(4) | 450 | 412 | 9 | % | 147 | 150 | (2 | )% | 598 | 562 | 6 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||
Visa Europe(5) | 479 | NM | 479 | NM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total nominal payments volume | $ | 2,851 | $ | 2,594 | 10 | % | $ | 2,800 | $ | 2,288 | 22 | % | $ | 5,651 | $ | 4,882 | 16 | % | ||||||||||||||
Cash volume | 520 | 491 | 6 | % | 1,774 | 2,015 | (12 | )% | 2,294 | 2,506 | (8 | )% | ||||||||||||||||||||
Visa Europe(5) | 175 | NM | 175 | NM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total nominal volume(6) | $ | 3,370 | $ | 3,086 | 9 | % | $ | 4,749 | $ | 4,303 | 10 | % | $ | 8,119 | $ | 7,388 | 10 | % | ||||||||||||||
United States | International | Visa Inc. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 months ended June 30,(1) | 12 months ended June 30,(1) | 12 months ended June 30,(1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2015 | 2014 | % Change | 2015 | 2014 | % Change | 2015 | 2014 | % Change | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
(in billions, except percentages) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nominal payments volume | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Consumer credit | $ | 980 | $ | 872 | 12 | % | $ | 1,676 | $ | 1,599 | 5 | % | $ | 2,656 | $ | 2,470 | 8 | % | ||||||||||||||
Consumer debit(3) | 1,202 | 1,127 | 7 | % | 462 | 453 | 2 | % | 1,663 | 1,580 | 5 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||
Commercial(4) | 412 | 370 | 11 | % | 150 | 145 | 4 | % | 562 | 514 | 9 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||
Total nominal payments volume | $ | 2,594 | $ | 2,369 | 10 | % | $ | 2,288 | $ | 2,196 | 4 | % | $ | 4,882 | $ | 4,565 | 7 | % | ||||||||||||||
Cash volume | 491 | 469 | 5 | % | 2,015 | 2,122 | (5 | )% | 2,506 | 2,591 | (3 | )% | ||||||||||||||||||||
Total nominal volume(6) | $ | 3,086 | $ | 2,838 | 9 | % | $ | 4,303 | $ | 4,319 | — | % | $ | 7,388 | $ | 7,157 | 3 | % | ||||||||||||||
The following table presents nominal and constant payments volume growth.(2)
International | Visa Inc. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
12 months ended June 30, 2016 vs 2015(1) | 12 months ended June 30, 2015 vs 2014(1) | 12 months ended June 30, 2016 vs 2015(1) | 12 months ended June 30, 2015 vs 2014(1) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Nominal | Constant(7) | Nominal | Constant(7) | Nominal | Constant(7) | Nominal | Constant(7) | ||||||||||||||||
Total payments volume growth (5) | 22 | % | 37 | % | 4 | % | 13 | % | 16 | % | 22 | % | 7 | % | 11 | % | |||||||
Total volume growth(5) | 10 | % | 27 | % | — | % | 10 | % | 10 | % | 19 | % | 3 | % | 10 | % | |||||||
(1) | Service revenues in a given quarter are assessed based on nominal payments volume in the prior quarter. Therefore, service revenues reported for the twelve months ended September 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, were based on nominal payments volume reported by our financial institution clients for the twelve months ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. |
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(2) | Figures in the tables may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Percentage changes are calculated based on unrounded numbers. |
(3) | Includes consumer prepaid volume and interlink volume. |
(4) | Includes large, middle and small business credit and debit, as well as commercial prepaid volume. |
(5) | Our nominal payments volume, total payments volume growth and total volume growth for the twelve months ended June 30, 2016 reflect the related nominal payments volume of Visa Europe for the three months ended June 30, 2016, which impacts our service revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016. |
(6) | Total nominal volume is the sum of total nominal payments volume and cash volume. Total nominal payments volume is the total monetary value of transactions for goods and services that are purchased on cards carrying the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and V PAY brands. Cash volume generally consists of cash access transactions, balance access transactions, balance transfers and convenience checks. Total nominal volume is provided by our financial institution clients, subject to review by Visa. On occasion, previously presented volume information may be updated. Prior period updates are not material. |
(7) | Growth on a constant-dollar basis excludes the impact of foreign currency fluctuations against the U.S. dollar. |
The following table provides the number of transactions processed by our VisaNet system, including transactions involving Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink, V PAY and PLUS cards processed on Visa's networks during the fiscal periods presented.(1)
2016(2),(3) | 2015(2) | 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 % Change(3) | 2015 vs. 2014 % Change | ||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages) | ||||||||||||||
Visa processed transactions | 83,159 | 70,968 | 64,993 | 17 | % | 9 | % | |||||||
(1) | Figures in the table may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Percentage changes are calculated based on unrounded numbers. On occasion, previously presented information may be updated. Prior period updates are not material. Our operating revenues and related processed transactions for fiscal 2016 do not reflect the financial results or related processed transactions of Visa Europe from the acquisition date, June 21, 2016, through June 30, 2016 as the impact is immaterial. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. |
(2) | As a result of changes in Russian National Payment System law, we transitioned the processing of Russian domestic transactions to the Russian National Payment Card System during the third quarter of fiscal 2015. The number of transactions processed by our VisaNet system does not reflect Russian domestic transactions processed after the transition. |
(3) | Visa processed transactions in fiscal 2016 include transactions processed by Visa Europe during the fiscal fourth quarter. |
Results of Operations
Operating Revenues
Our operating revenues are primarily generated from payments volume on Visa products for purchased goods and services, as well as the number of transactions processed on our network. We do not earn revenues from, or bear credit risk with respect to, interest or fees paid by account holders on Visa products. Our issuing clients have the responsibility for issuing cards and other payment products, and determining the interest rates and fees paid by account holders. We generally do not earn revenues from the fees that merchants are charged for acceptance by the acquirers, including the merchant discount rate. Our acquiring clients are generally responsible for soliciting merchants, and establishing and earning these fees.
The following sets forth the components of our operating revenues:
Service revenues consist mainly of revenues earned for services provided in support of client usage of Visa products. Current quarter service revenues are primarily assessed using a calculation of current pricing applied to the prior quarter's payments volume. Service revenues also include assessments designed to support ongoing acceptance and volume growth initiatives, which are recognized in the same period the related volume is transacted.
Data processing revenues are earned for authorization, clearing, settlement, network access and other maintenance and support services that facilitate transaction and information processing among our clients globally.
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Data processing revenues are recognized in the same period the related transactions occur or services are rendered.
International transaction revenues are earned for cross-border transaction processing and currency conversion activities. Cross-border transactions arise when the country of origin of the issuer is different from that of the merchant. International transaction revenues are primarily generated by cross-border payments and cash volume.
Other revenues consist mainly of license fees for use of the Visa brand, revenues earned from Visa Europe in accordance with the Visa Europe Framework Agreement prior to the completion of the Visa Europe acquisition, fees for account holder services, certification and licensing, and other activities related to our acquired entities. Other revenues also include optional service or product enhancements, such as extended account holder protection and concierge services.
Client incentives consist of long-term contracts with financial institution clients, merchants and strategic partners for various programs designed to build payments volume, increase Visa product acceptance, win merchant routing transactions over our network and drive innovation. These incentives are primarily accounted for as reductions to operating revenues.
Operating Expenses
Personnel expenses include salaries, employee benefits, incentive compensation, share-based compensation, severance charges and contractor expense.
Marketing expenses include expenses associated with advertising and marketing campaigns, sponsorships and other related promotions of the Visa brand.
Network and processing expenses mainly represent expenses for the operation of our processing network, including maintenance, equipment rental and fees for other data processing services.
Professional fees mainly consist of fees for consulting, legal and other professional services.
Depreciation and amortization expenses include depreciation expense for property and equipment, as well as amortization of purchased and internally developed software. Also included in this amount is amortization of finite-lived intangible assets primarily obtained through acquisitions.
General and administrative expenses mainly consist of transaction costs related to the Visa Europe acquisition, product enhancements, facilities costs, travel activities, foreign exchange gains and losses and other corporate expenses incurred in support of our business.
Litigation provision is an estimate of litigation expense and is based on management's understanding of our litigation profile, the specifics of the cases, advice of counsel to the extent appropriate and management's best estimate of incurred loss as of the balance sheet date.
Visa Europe Framework Agreement loss is a one-time loss incurred upon consummation of the Visa Europe acquisition on June 21, 2016, resulting from the effective settlement of the Framework Agreement between us and Visa Europe.
Non-operating Income (Expense)
Non-operating income (expense) primarily includes interest expense, changes in the fair value of the Visa Europe put option and income, gains and losses earned on investments and derivative instruments not associated with our core operations.
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Visa Inc. Fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014
Operating Revenues
The following table sets forth our operating revenues earned in the U.S., internationally and in accordance with the Framework Agreement prior to the Visa Europe acquisition on June 21, 2016. Visa Europe revenue earned for the three months ended September 30, 2016 is included in International.
Fiscal Year Ended September 30, | $ Change | % Change(1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2016(2) | 2015 | 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
United States | $ | 7,851 | $ | 7,406 | $ | 6,847 | $ | 445 | $ | 559 | 6 | % | 8 | % | |||||||||||
International | 7,040 | 6,219 | 5,629 | 821 | 590 | 13 | % | 10 | % | ||||||||||||||||
Revenues earned under the Framework Agreement(3) | 191 | 255 | 226 | (64 | ) | 29 | (25 | )% | 13 | % | |||||||||||||||
Net operating revenues | $ | 15,082 | $ | 13,880 | $ | 12,702 | $ | 1,202 | $ | 1,178 | 9 | % | 9 | % | |||||||||||
(1) | Figures in the table may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Percentage changes are calculated based on unrounded numbers. |
(2) | Our operating revenues for fiscal 2016 do not reflect revenues earned by Visa Europe from the acquisition date, June 21, 2016, through June 30, 2016 as the impact was immaterial. |
(3) | Reflects revenues earned from Visa Europe prior to the acquisition, in accordance with the Framework Agreement that provided for trademark and technology licenses and bilateral services. The Framework Agreement was effectively settled upon the closing of the acquisition. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. |
The increase in operating revenues primarily reflects continued growth in processed transactions and nominal payments volume, as well as the fiscal fourth quarter operating revenues of Visa Europe. These benefits were partially offset by increases in client incentives. Overall revenue growth also reflects the positive impact of select pricing modifications effected in the third quarter of fiscal 2015.
Our operating revenues, primarily service revenues, international transaction revenues, and client incentives, are impacted by the overall strengthening or weakening of the U.S. dollar as payments volume and related revenues denominated in local currencies are converted to U.S. dollars. The effect of exchange rate movements in fiscal 2016, as partially mitigated by our hedging program, resulted in a negative three percentage point impact to our net operating revenue growth.
The following table sets forth the components of our net operating revenues, including operating revenues earned by Visa Europe for the three months ended September 30, 2016. Other revenues also includes revenue earned from Visa Europe in accordance with the Framework Agreement prior to its acquisition on June 21, 2016.
Fiscal Year Ended September 30, | $ Change | % Change(1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2016(2) | 2015 | 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Service revenues | $ | 6,747 | $ | 6,302 | $ | 5,797 | $ | 445 | $ | 505 | 7 | % | 9 | % | |||||||||||
Data processing revenues | 6,272 | 5,552 | 5,167 | 720 | 385 | 13 | % | 7 | % | ||||||||||||||||
International transaction revenues | 4,649 | 4,064 | 3,560 | 585 | 504 | 14 | % | 14 | % | ||||||||||||||||
Other revenues | 823 | 823 | 770 | — | 53 | — | % | 7 | % | ||||||||||||||||
Client incentives | (3,409 | ) | (2,861 | ) | (2,592 | ) | (548 | ) | (269 | ) | 19 | % | 10 | % | |||||||||||
Net operating revenues | $ | 15,082 | $ | 13,880 | $ | 12,702 | $ | 1,202 | $ | 1,178 | 9 | % | 9 | % | |||||||||||
(1) | Figures in the table may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Percentage changes are calculated based on unrounded numbers. |
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(2) | Our operating revenues for fiscal 2016 do not reflect revenues earned by Visa Europe from the acquisition date, June 21, 2016, through June 30, 2016 as the impact was immaterial. |
• | Service revenues, which includes revenues earned by Visa Europe in the fiscal fourth quarter, increased in fiscal 2016 and 2015 primarily due to 16% and 7% growth in nominal payments volume, respectively. The growth in fiscal 2016 service revenues was slower than the growth in payments volume reflecting the inclusion of Visa Europe revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter and the resulting impact on our service revenue yield. Fiscal 2016 growth also reflects select pricing modifications which became effective in the third quarter of fiscal 2015. |
• | Data processing revenues increased in fiscal 2016 and 2015 due to overall growth in processed transactions of 17% and 9%, respectively, which includes data processing revenues earned by Visa Europe in the fiscal fourth quarter and the resulting impact on our data processing revenue yield. |
• | International transaction revenues increased in fiscal 2016 primarily due to nominal cross-border volume growth of 37%, including revenues earned by Visa Europe in the fiscal fourth quarter. In addition to the inclusion of Visa Europe revenue and the resulting impact on our international transaction revenue yield, fiscal 2016 growth also reflects select pricing modifications that became effective in the third quarter of fiscal 2015. The increase in fiscal 2015 was primarily driven by higher volatility in a broad range of currencies, combined with select pricing modifications that became effective in the third quarter of fiscal 2015. |
• | Client incentives increased in fiscal 2016 and 2015, reflecting overall growth in global payments volume, incentives incurred on long-term client contracts that were initiated or renewed during fiscal 2016 and 2015 and Visa Europe's incentives for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016. The amount of client incentives we record in future periods will vary based on changes in performance expectations, actual client performance, amendments to existing contracts or the execution of new contracts. |
Operating Expenses
The following table sets forth the components of our total operating expenses.
Fiscal Year Ended September 30, | $ Change | % Change(1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
2016(2) | 2015 | 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personnel | $ | 2,226 | $ | 2,079 | $ | 1,875 | $ | 147 | $ | 204 | 7 | % | 11 | % | |||||||||||
Marketing | 869 | 872 | 900 | (3 | ) | (28 | ) | — | % | (3 | )% | ||||||||||||||
Network and processing | 538 | 474 | 507 | 64 | (33 | ) | 13 | % | (7 | )% | |||||||||||||||
Professional fees | 389 | 336 | 328 | 53 | 8 | 16 | % | 2 | % | ||||||||||||||||
Depreciation and amortization | 502 | 494 | 435 | 8 | 59 | 2 | % | 14 | % | ||||||||||||||||
General and administrative | 796 | 547 | 507 | 249 | 40 | 46 | % | 8 | % | ||||||||||||||||
Litigation provision | 2 | 14 | 453 | (12 | ) | (439 | ) | (86 | )% | (97 | )% | ||||||||||||||
Visa Europe Framework Agreement loss | 1,877 | — | — | 1,877 | — | NM | — | % | |||||||||||||||||
Total operating expenses(3) | $ | 7,199 | $ | 4,816 | $ | 5,005 | $ | 2,383 | $ | (189 | ) | 49 | % | (4 | )% | ||||||||||
(1) | Figures in the table may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Percentage changes are calculated based on unrounded numbers. |
(2) | Our operating expenses for fiscal 2016 do not reflect the expenses incurred by Visa Europe from the acquisition date, June 21, 2016, through June 30, 2016 as the impact was immaterial. Operating expenses incurred by Visa Europe for the three months ended September 30, 2016 are reflected in fiscal 2016 total operating expenses. |
(3) | Operating expenses for fiscal 2016 and 2014 include significant items that we do not believe are indicative of our operating performance as they are related to the Visa Europe acquisition, or are covered by the U.S. retrospective responsibility plan. See Overview within this Item 7—Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. |
• | Personnel expenses increased in fiscal 2016 primarily due to a severance charge related to personnel reductions including planned reductions at Visa Europe, combined with an increase from the inclusion of Visa Europe fiscal fourth quarter expenses. This increase was partially offset by a decrease in contractor |
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costs, an increase in personnel costs that were invested in and capitalized as part of technology development projects and lower incentive compensation. The increase in fiscal 2015 was primarily due to an increase in headcount reflecting our strategy to invest for future growth, combined with higher incentive compensation.
• | Marketing expenses in fiscal 2016 reflect efficiencies in production and agency costs which were redeployed for other marketing uses, and Visa Europe expenses for the fiscal fourth quarter. The decrease in marketing during fiscal 2015 compared to fiscal 2014 was mainly due to the overall strengthening of the U.S. dollar as marketing spend in local currencies was converted to U.S. dollars, combined with the absence of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and 2014 FIFA World Cup spend that was incurred in fiscal 2014. The decrease was partially offset by increases in promotional campaigns that support our growth strategies and product initiatives. |
• | Network and processing expenses increased in fiscal 2016 primarily due to the inclusion of Visa Europe expenses beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 and fees associated with the processing of Russian domestic transactions that transitioned to the Russian National Payment Card system during the third quarter of fiscal 2015. The decrease in fiscal 2015 was a result of initiatives to optimize the use of our technology resources. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. |
• | Professional fees increased in fiscal 2016 primarily reflecting transaction costs incurred in connection with our acquisition of Visa Europe. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. |
• | Depreciation and amortization expenses in fiscal 2016 were flat compared to fiscal 2015. The increase in fiscal 2015 was primarily due to additional depreciation from our ongoing investments in technology assets and infrastructure to support our digital solutions and core business initiatives. |
• | General and administrative expenses increased in fiscal 2016 mainly due to costs incurred related to our acquisition of Visa Europe and the inclusion of Visa Europe expenses beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. The increase was also attributable to net foreign exchange losses incurred as a result of changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rate against other currencies in which we transact. The increase in fiscal 2015 was mainly due to an increase in travel activities, product enhancements and facilities costs in support of our business growth, combined with losses incurred from the sale of assets held by an international subsidiary. These increases were partially offset by unrealized foreign exchange gains and the absence of the fiscal 2014 disposal of obsolete technology assets. |
• | Litigation provision decreased in fiscal 2016 primarily due to the absence of a loss incurred in fiscal 2015 upon the settlement of uncovered litigation. The decrease in fiscal 2015 reflects the absence of a $450 million accrual related to the U.S. covered litigation incurred in fiscal 2014. See Note 20—Legal Matters and Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans to our consolidated financial statements. |
• | Visa Europe Framework Agreement loss resulted from the effective settlement of the Framework Agreement between Visa and Visa Europe upon consummation of the transaction. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. |
Non-operating Income (Expense)
The following table sets forth the components of our non-operating income (expense).
Fiscal Year Ended September 30, | $ Change | % Change(1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
2016(2) | 2015 | 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | 2016 vs. 2015 | 2015 vs. 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||
(in millions, except percentages) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interest expense | $ | (427 | ) | $ | (3 | ) | $ | (8 | ) | $ | (424 | ) | $ | 5 | NM | (61 | )% | |||||||
Other | 556 | (66 | ) | 35 | 622 | (101 | ) | NM | NM | |||||||||||||||
Total non-operating income (expense) | $ | 129 | $ | (69 | ) | $ | 27 | $ | 198 | $ | (96 | ) | NM | NM | ||||||||||
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(1) | Figures in the table may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Percentage changes are calculated based on unrounded numbers. |
(2) | Our non-operating income (expense) for fiscal 2016 does not reflect the financial results of Visa Europe from the acquisition date, June 21, 2016, through June 30, 2016 as the impact was immaterial. Fiscal 2016 non-operating income (expense) includes financial results of Visa Europe for the three months ended September 30, 2016. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. |
• | Interest expense increased during fiscal 2016 primarily due to the issuance of $16.0 billion fixed-rate senior notes in December 2015. See Note 9—Debt to our consolidated financial statements. |
• | Other non-operating income (expense) in fiscal 2016 and 2015 was primarily comprised of the following: |
• | net gains of $74 million in fiscal 2016 related to currency forward contracts entered into to mitigate a portion of our foreign currency exchange rate risk associated with the upfront cash consideration paid in the Visa Europe acquisition. As these contracts are not designated in hedging relationships, related gains and losses are recorded directly in earnings as part of non-operating income (expense); |
• | a foreign exchange gain of $145 million in fiscal 2016 on euro deposits as a result of holding euro-denominated bank balances for a short period in advance of the Closing; |
• | a non-cash adjustment of $255 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2016 to decrease the fair value of the Visa Europe put option, which is not subject to tax, reducing the fair value of the liability to zero; and |
• | a non-cash adjustment of $110 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 to increase the fair value of the unamended Visa Europe put option, which is not subject to tax. |
See Note 4—Fair Value Measurements and Investments and Note 12—Derivative and Non-derivative Financial Instruments to our consolidated financial statements.
Effective Income Tax Rate
The effective income tax rate was 25% in fiscal 2016 and 30% in fiscal 2015. The effective tax rate in fiscal 2016 differs from the effective tax rate in fiscal 2015 primarily due to:
• | the effect of one-time items related to the Visa Europe acquisition, the most significant of which was the $1.9 billion U.S. loss related to the effective settlement of the Framework Agreement between Visa and Visa Europe. These one-time items impacted the geographic mix of our global income, resulting in a reduced effective tax rate; |
• | an $88 million one-time tax benefit due to the remeasurement of deferred tax liabilities as a result of the reduction in the UK tax rate enacted in fiscal 2016; |
• | the non-taxable $255 million revaluation of the Visa Europe put option recorded in fiscal 2016; and |
• | the absence of a $296 million tax benefit recognized in fiscal 2015 resulting from the resolution of uncertain tax positions with taxing authorities. Included in the $296 million was a one-time $239 million tax benefit that related to prior fiscal years. |
The effective income tax rates were 30% in fiscal 2015 and 2014. The following highlights the significant tax items recorded in each respective year:
• | the aforementioned $296 million tax benefit recognized in fiscal 2015; and |
• | a $264 million tax benefit recognized in fiscal 2014 related to a deduction for U.S. domestic production activities, of which $191 million was a one-time tax benefit related to prior fiscal years. |
Adjusted effective income tax rate. Our financial results for fiscal 2016 reflect the impact of certain significant items that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing operating performance in the prior or future years, as they are either non-recurring or have no cash impact. As such, we have presented our adjusted effective income tax rate in the table below, which we believe provides a clearer understanding of our operating performance in fiscal 2016. See Overview - Adjusted financial results within this Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for descriptions of the adjustments in the table below.
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Fiscal 2016 | ||||||||||
Income Before Income Taxes | Income Tax Provision | Effective Income Tax Rate(1) | ||||||||
As reported | $ | 8,012 | $ | 2,021 | 25.2 | % | ||||
Severance cost | 110 | 38 | ||||||||
Remeasurement of deferred tax liability | — | 88 | ||||||||
Acquisition-related costs | 152 | 56 | ||||||||
Visa Europe Framework Agreement loss | 1,877 | 693 | ||||||||
Net gains on currency forward contracts | (74 | ) | (27 | ) | ||||||
Foreign exchange gain on euro deposits | (145 | ) | (54 | ) | ||||||
Revaluation of Visa Europe put option | (255 | ) | — | |||||||
As adjusted | $ | 9,677 | $ | 2,815 | 29.1 | % | ||||
(1) | Figures in the table may not recalculate exactly due to rounding. Effective income tax rate changes are calculated based on unrounded numbers. |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Management of Our Liquidity
We regularly evaluate cash requirements for current operations, commitments, development activities and capital expenditures, and we may elect to raise additional funds for these purposes in the future through the issuance of either debt or equity. Our treasury policies provide management with the guidelines and authority to manage liquidity risk in a manner consistent with our corporate objectives.
The objectives of our treasury policies are to:
• | provide adequate liquidity to cover operating expenditures and liquidity contingency scenarios; |
• | ensure timely completion of payments settlement activities; |
• | ensure payments on required litigation settlements; |
• | make planned capital investments in our business; |
• | pay dividends and repurchase our shares at the discretion of our board of directors; and |
• | invest excess cash in securities that enable us to first meet our working capital and liquidity needs, and earn additional income. |
Based on our current cash flow budgets and forecasts of our short-term and long-term liquidity needs, we believe that our projected sources of liquidity will be sufficient to meet our projected liquidity needs for more than the next 12 months. We will continue to assess our liquidity position and potential sources of supplemental liquidity in view of our operating performance, current economic and capital market conditions, and other relevant circumstances.
Cash Flow Data
The following table summarizes our cash flow activity for the fiscal years presented:
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |||||||||
(in millions) | |||||||||||
Total cash provided by (used in): | |||||||||||
Operating activities | $ | 5,574 | $ | 6,584 | $ | 7,205 | |||||
Investing activities | (10,916 | ) | (1,435 | ) | (941 | ) | |||||
Financing activities | 7,477 | (3,603 | ) | (6,478 | ) | ||||||
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents | (34 | ) | 1 | (1 | ) | ||||||
Increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents | $ | 2,101 | $ | 1,547 | $ | (215 | ) | ||||
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Operating activities. Cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014 was significantly impacted by cash flows related to the Visa Europe acquisition and the U.S. interchange multidistrict litigation, including:
• | $1.9 billion of the consideration paid in the Visa Europe acquisition related to the effective settlement of the Framework Agreement between us and Visa Europe, and payment of $244 million of interest on the senior notes during fiscal 2016 (see Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe and Note 9—Debt); |
• | payments of $426 million made from the U.S. litigation escrow account and a related decrease of approximately $157 million of income taxes paid during fiscal 2015; and |
• | the return of $1.1 billion in takedown payments in fiscal 2014 and related increase of $368 million in income taxes paid. |
The cash inflows and outflows related to the U.S. litigation escrow account are also reflected as offsetting cash flows within financing activities for their respective years as they are covered by the U.S. retrospective responsibility plan. See Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans and Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements.
Investing activities. Cash used in investing activities was higher in fiscal 2016 compared to the prior year primarily due to the up-front cash consideration paid in the Visa Europe acquisition, offset by $2.8 billion of cash held by Visa Europe at the closing of the transaction. Cash used in investing activities was higher in fiscal 2015 compared to fiscal 2014, primarily reflecting a decrease in the proceeds received from maturities and sales of available-for-sale securities, and an increase in purchases of available-for-sale securities. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe and Note 4—Fair Value Measurements and Investments to our consolidated financial statements.
Financing activities. Cash provided by financing activities in fiscal 2016 reflects $15.9 billion net aggregate proceeds received from our debt issuance completed in December 2015, $7.0 billion used to repurchase class A common stock in the open market, and $1.4 billion of dividend payments. Cash used in financing activities in fiscal 2015 and 2014 reflect significant cash flows in connection with the interchange multidistrict litigation that offset the impacts discussed above within operating activities as they are covered by the U.S. retrospective responsibility plan, as follows:
• | payments of $426 million made from the U.S. litigation escrow account in fiscal 2015; |
• | $1.1 billion in takedown payments returned to the U.S. litigation escrow account in fiscal 2014; and |
• | $450 million deposited into the U.S. litigation escrow account in fiscal 2014. |
The remainder of the change in fiscal 2015 compared to 2014 was primarily due to decreases in common stock repurchases. See Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans, Note 9—Debt, Note 14—Stockholders' Equity and Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements.
Sources of Liquidity
Our primary sources of liquidity are cash on hand, cash flow from our operations, our investment portfolio and access to various equity and borrowing arrangements. Funds from operations are maintained in cash and cash equivalents and short-term or long-term available-for-sale investment securities based upon our funding requirements, access to liquidity from these holdings, and the return that these holdings provide. We believe that cash flow generated from operations, in conjunction with access to our other sources of liquidity, will be more than sufficient to meet our ongoing operational needs.
Cash and cash equivalents and short-term and long-term available-for-sale investment securities held by our foreign subsidiaries totaled $8.7 billion at September 30, 2016. If it were necessary to repatriate these funds for use in the U.S., we would be required to pay U.S. income taxes on the amount of undistributed earnings in those subsidiaries. It is our intent to indefinitely reinvest the majority of these funds outside of the U.S. As such, we have not accrued any U.S. income tax provision in our financial results related to approximately $8.3 billion of undistributed earnings included in these funds. The amount of income taxes that would have resulted had these funds been repatriated is not practicably determinable.
Available-for-sale investment securities. Our investment portfolio is designed to invest excess cash in securities which enables us to meet our working capital and liquidity needs. Our investment portfolio primarily consists of debt securities issued by the U.S. Treasury or U.S. government-sponsored agencies. The majority of these investments, $3.9 billion, are classified as non-current as they have stated maturities of more than one year from the balance sheet date. However, these investments are generally available to meet short-term liquidity needs.
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Factors that may impact the liquidity of our investment portfolio include, but are not limited to, changes to credit ratings of the securities, uncertainty related to regulatory developments, actions by central banks and other monetary authorities, and the ongoing strength and quality of credit markets. We will continue to review our portfolio in light of evolving market and economic conditions. However, if current market conditions deteriorate, the liquidity of our investment portfolio may be impacted and we could determine that some of our investments are impaired, which could adversely impact our financial results. We have policies that limit the amount of credit exposure to any one financial institution or type of investment.
Commercial paper program. We maintain a commercial paper program to support our working capital requirements and for other general corporate purposes. Under the program, we are authorized to issue up to $3.0 billion in outstanding notes, with maturities up to 397 days from the date of issuance. We had no outstanding obligations under the program at September 30, 2016. See Note 9—Debt to our consolidated financial statements.
Credit facility. On January 27, 2016, we entered into an unsecured $4.0 billion revolving credit facility. The credit facility, which expires on January 27, 2021, replaced our previous $3.0 billion credit facility, which expired on January 27, 2016. The new credit facility contains covenants and events of default customary for facilities of this type. There were no borrowings under either facility and we were in compliance with all related covenants during the year ended September 30, 2016. See Note 9—Debt to our consolidated financial statements.
Universal shelf registration statement. In July 2015, we filed a registration statement with the SEC using a shelf registration process. As permitted by the registration statement, we may, from time to time, sell shares of debt or equity securities in one or more transactions. This registration statement expires in July 2018.
Long-term debt and change in capital structure. In conjunction with the Visa Europe acquisition, we have evolved our long-term capital structure. In December 2015, we issued fixed-rate senior notes in an aggregate principal amount of $16.0 billion, with maturities ranging between 2 and 30 years. Our first principal payment of $1.8 billion is due on December 14, 2017. Interest on the Notes, at a rate ranging between 1.20% and 4.30%, is payable semi-annually on June 14 and December 14 of each year. An interest payment of $244 million was made on June 14, 2016. The Notes may be redeemed as a whole or in part, at our option at any time prior to maturity, at a specified redemption price. The net aggregate proceeds of $15.9 billion, after deducting underwriting discounts and debt issuance costs of $127 million, were used to fund a portion of the purchase price for the acquisition of Visa Europe and for general corporate purposes, including share repurchases. We are not subject to any financial covenants and did not experience any changes to our investment credit ratings as a result of this debt issuance. See Note 9—Debt to our consolidated financial statements. We expect to issue additional debt of about $2.0 billion by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2017, market conditions permitting.
U.S. Litigation escrow account. Pursuant to the terms of the U.S. retrospective responsibility plan, we maintain a U.S. litigation escrow account from which monetary liabilities from settlements of, or judgments in, the U.S. covered litigation will be payable. When we fund the U.S. litigation escrow account, the shares of class B common stock held by our stockholders are subject to dilution through an adjustment to the conversion rate of the shares of class B common stock to shares of class A common stock. See Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans and Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements. The balance in this account at September 30, 2016, was $1.0 billion and is reflected as restricted cash in our consolidated balance sheet. As these funds are restricted for the sole purpose of making payments related to the U.S. covered litigation matters, as described below under Uses of Liquidity, we do not rely on them for other operational needs.
Credit Ratings
At September 30, 2016, our credit ratings by Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s were as follows:
Standard and Poor’s | Moody’s | ||||||
Debt type | Rating | Outlook | Rating | Outlook | |||
Short-term unsecured debt | A-1 | Stable | P-1 | Stable | |||
Long-term unsecured debt | A+ | Stable | A1 | Stable | |||
Various factors affect our credit ratings, including changes in our operating performance, the economic environment, conditions in the electronic payment industry, our financial position and changes in our business strategy. We do not currently foresee any reasonable circumstances under which our credit ratings would be significantly downgraded. If a downgrade were to occur, it could adversely impact, among other things, our future borrowing costs and access to capital markets.
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Uses of Liquidity
Payments settlement. Payments settlement due from and to our financial institution clients can represent a substantial daily liquidity requirement. Most U.S. dollar settlements are settled within the same day and do not result in a net receivable or payable balance, while settlements in currencies other than the U.S. dollar generally remain outstanding for one to two business days, which is consistent with industry practice for such transactions. In general, during fiscal 2016, we were not required to fund settlement-related working capital. Our average daily net settlement position was a net payable of $242 million.
Visa Europe acquisition. On June 21, 2016, we acquired 100% of the share capital of Visa Europe, a payments technology business. The acquisition positions us to create additional value through increased scale, efficiencies realized by the integration of both businesses, and benefits related to Visa Europe's transition from an association to a for-profit enterprise. We paid up-front cash consideration of €12.2 billion ($13.9 billion) and issued preferred stock convertible upon certain conditions into approximately 79 million shares of class A common stock, equivalent to a value of €5.3 billion ($6.1 billion) at the closing stock price of $77.33 on June 21, 2016. Also, in connection with the purchase, we will pay an additional €1.0 billion, plus 4% compound annual interest, on the third anniversary of the Closing. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements.
U.S. covered litigation. We are parties to legal and regulatory proceedings with respect to a variety of matters, including certain litigation that we refer to as the U.S. covered litigation. As noted above, monetary liabilities from settlements of, or judgments in, the U.S. covered litigation are payable from the U.S. litigation escrow account. During fiscal 2016, we made $45 million in covered litigation payments that were funded from the U.S. litigation escrow account, reflecting settlements with individual opt-out merchants in the interchange multidistrict litigation proceedings. At September 30, 2016, the U.S. litigation escrow account had an available balance of $1.0 billion. In June 2016, the approval of the 2012 Settlement Agreement was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Until the appeals process is complete, it is uncertain whether the Company will be able to resolve the class plaintiffs' claims as contemplated by the Settlement Agreement. If the Settlement Agreement is terminated and no further agreement is reached regarding funds previously paid from the litigation account into settlement funds pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, we will have the right to approximately $3.0 billion, which would be returned to the U.S. litigation escrow account. This will increase our taxable income, thereby increasing our taxes to be paid by approximately $1.1 billion. See Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans and Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements.
Other litigation. Judgments in and settlements of litigation, other than the U.S. covered litigation, could give rise to future liquidity needs.
Common stock repurchases. During fiscal 2016, we repurchased 91 million shares of our class A common stock in the open market using $7.0 billion of cash on hand. As of September 30, 2016, we had remaining authorized funds of $5.8 billion. In October 2015 and July 2016, our board of directors authorized share repurchase programs for $5.0 billion each. These authorizations have no expiration date. All share repurchase programs authorized prior to October 2015 have been completed. See Note 14—Stockholders' Equity to our consolidated financial statements.
Dividends. During fiscal 2016, we declared and paid $1.4 billion in dividends. In October 2016, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend in the aggregate amount of $0.165 per share of class A common stock (determined in the case of class B and class C common stock and U.K.&I and Europe preferred stock on an as-converted basis). We expect to pay approximately $400 million in connection with this dividend on December 6, 2016. See Note 14—Stockholders' Equity to our consolidated financial statements. We expect to continue paying quarterly dividends in cash, subject to approval by the board of directors. All preferred and class B and C common stock will share ratably on an as-converted basis in such future dividends.
Pension and other postretirement benefits. We sponsor various qualified and non-qualified defined benefit pension and other postretirement benefit plans that provide for retirement and medical benefits for substantially all employees residing in the U.S. As a result of the acquisition of Visa Europe, we assumed the obligations related to Visa Europe's defined benefit plan, primarily consisting of the U.K. pension plans. Our policy with respect to our U.S. qualified pension plan is to contribute annually in September of each year, an amount not less than the minimum required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Our U.S. non-qualified pension and other postretirement benefit plans are funded on a current basis. In relation to the Visa Europe U.K. pension plans, our funding policy is to contribute in accordance with the appropriate funding requirements agreed with the trustees of our U.K. pension plans. Additional amounts may be agreed with the U.K. pension plan trustees. In fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014, we made contributions to our U.S. pension and other postretirement plans of $4 million, $19 million, and
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$14 million, respectively. For Visa Europe's U.K. pension plans, we made contributions of $102 million subsequent to the acquisition date as agreed upon with the trustees to improve the funding level of the plans. In fiscal 2017, given current projections and assumptions, we anticipate funding our U.S. and Visa Europe's U.K. defined benefit pension plans by approximately $12 million and $6 million, respectively. The actual contribution amount will vary depending upon the funded status of the pension plan, movements in the discount rate, performance of the plan assets and related tax consequences. See Note 10—Pension, Postretirement and Other Benefits to our consolidated financial statements.
Capital expenditures. Our capital expenditures increased during fiscal 2016, due to investments in technology, infrastructure and growth initiatives. We expect to continue investing in technology assets and payments system infrastructure to support our digital solutions and core business initiatives.
Fair Value Measurements—Financial Instruments
The assessment of fair value of our financial instruments is based on a fair value hierarchy that requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. Observable inputs are obtained from independent sources and can be validated by a third party, whereas unobservable inputs reflect assumptions regarding what a third party would use in pricing an asset or liability. As of September 30, 2016, our financial instruments measured at fair value on a recurring basis included approximately $12.0 billion of assets and $136 million of liabilities. None of these instruments were valued using significant unobservable inputs. See Note 4—Fair Value Measurements and Investments to our consolidated financial statements.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
Our off-balance sheet arrangements are primarily comprised of guarantees and indemnifications. Visa has no off-balance sheet debt, other than lease and purchase order commitments, as discussed below and reflected in our contractual obligations table.
Indemnifications
We indemnify our financial institution clients for settlement losses suffered due to the failure of any other client to fund its settlement obligations in accordance with our rules. The amount of the indemnification is limited to the amount of unsettled Visa payment transactions at any point in time. We maintain global credit settlement risk policies and procedures to manage settlement risk, which may require clients to post collateral if certain credit standards are not met. See Note 1—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 11—Settlement Guarantee Management to our consolidated financial statements.
In the ordinary course of business, we enter into contractual arrangements with financial institutions and other clients and partners under which we may agree to indemnify the client for certain types of losses incurred relating to the services we provide or otherwise relating to our performance under the applicable agreement.
Contractual Obligations
Our contractual commitments will have an impact on our future liquidity. The contractual obligations identified in the table below include both on- and off-balance sheet transactions that represent a material, expected or contractually committed future obligation as of September 30, 2016. We believe that we will be able to fund these obligations through cash generated from our operations and available credit facilities.
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Payments Due by Period | |||||||||||||||||||
Less than 1 Year | 1-3 Years | 3-5 Years | More than 5 Years | Total | |||||||||||||||
(in millions) | |||||||||||||||||||
Long-term debt(1) | $ | 489 | $ | 2,696 | $ | 3,903 | $ | 16,501 | $ | 23,589 | |||||||||
Purchase orders(2) | 962 | 164 | 49 | — | 1,175 | ||||||||||||||
Leases(3) | 126 | 185 | 118 | 190 | 619 | ||||||||||||||
Client incentives(4) | 5,544 | 6,745 | 4,721 | 4,791 | 21,801 | ||||||||||||||
Marketing and sponsorship(5) | 126 | 248 | 148 | 33 | 555 | ||||||||||||||
Dividends(6) | 400 | — | — | — | 400 | ||||||||||||||
Deferred purchase consideration(7) | — | 1,266 | — | — | 1,266 | ||||||||||||||
Total(8,9) | $ | 7,647 | $ | 11,304 | $ | 8,939 | $ | 21,515 | $ | 49,405 | |||||||||
(1) | In December 2015, we issued $16.0 billion of fixed-rate senior notes in conjunction with the acquisition of Visa Europe with maturities ranging between 2 and 30 years. Interest on the Notes, at a rate ranging between 1.20% and 4.30%, is payable semi-annually on June 14 and December 14 of each year. Amounts presented include payments for both interest and principal. Also see Note 9—Debt to our consolidated financial statements. |
(2) | Represents agreements to purchase goods and services that specify significant terms, including: fixed or minimum quantities to be purchased, minimum or variable price provisions, and the approximate timing of the transaction. |
(3) | Includes operating leases for premises, equipment and software licenses, which range in terms from less than one year to nineteen years. |
(4) | Represents future cash payments for long-term contracts with financial institution clients and other business partners for various programs designed to build payments volume, increase Visa product acceptance and win merchant routing transactions over our network. These agreements, which range in terms from one to sixteen years, can provide card issuance and/or conversion support, volume/growth targets and marketing and program support based on specific performance requirements. Payments under these agreements will generally be offset by revenues earned from higher corresponding payments and transaction volumes. These payment amounts are estimates and will change based on client performance, amendments to existing contracts or execution of new contracts. Related amounts disclosed in Note 17—Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements represent the associated expected reduction of revenue related to these agreements that we estimate we will record. |
(5) | Visa is a party to contractual sponsorship agreements ranging from approximately three to sixteen years. These contracts are designed to increase Visa brand recognition, drive Visa product usage, and differentiate Visa against competition. Over the life of these contracts, Visa is required to make payments in exchange for certain advertising and promotional rights. In connection with these contractual commitments, Visa has an obligation to spend certain minimum amounts for advertising and marketing promotion over the life of the contract. For obligations where the individual years of spend are not specified in the contract, we have estimated the timing of when these amounts will be spent. |
(6) | Includes expected dividend amount of $400 million as dividends were declared in October 2016 and will be paid on December 6, 2016 to all holders of record of Visa's common stock as of November 18, 2016. |
(7) | On June 21, 2016, we acquired 100% of the share capital of Visa Europe. In connection with the purchase, we will pay an additional €1.0 billion, plus 4% compound annual interest, on the third anniversary of the Closing. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. |
(8) | We have liabilities for uncertain tax positions of $911 million. At September 30, 2016, we had also accrued $61 million of interest and $17 million of penalties associated with our uncertain tax positions. We cannot determine the range of cash payments that will be made and the timing of the cash settlements, if any, associated with our uncertain tax positions. Therefore, no amounts related to these obligations have been included in the table. |
(9) | We evaluate the need to make contributions to our pension plan after considering the funded status of the pension plan, movements in the discount rate, performance of the plan assets and related tax consequences. Expected contributions to our pension plan have not been included in the table as such amounts are dependent upon the considerations discussed above, and may result in a wide range of amounts. See Note 10—Pension, Postretirement and Other Benefits to our consolidated financial statements and the Liquidity and Capital Resources section of this Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. |
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Critical Accounting Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America which require us to make judgments, assumptions and estimates that affect the amounts reported. See Note 1—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements. We have established policies and control procedures which seek to ensure that estimates and assumptions are appropriately governed and applied consistently from period to period. However, actual results could differ from our assumptions and estimates, and such differences could be material.
We believe that the following accounting estimates are the most critical to fully understand and evaluate our reported financial results, as they require our most subjective or complex management judgments, resulting from the need to make estimates about the effect of matters that are inherently uncertain and unpredictable.
Revenue Recognition—Client Incentives
Critical estimates. We enter into incentive agreements with financial institution clients, merchants and other business partners for various programs designed to build payments volume, increase Visa product acceptance and win merchant routing transactions over our network. These incentives are primarily accounted for as reductions to operating revenues; however, if a separate identifiable benefit at fair value can be established, they are accounted for as operating expenses. We generally capitalize advance incentive payments under these agreements if select criteria are met. The capitalization criteria include the existence of future economic benefits to Visa, the existence of legally enforceable recoverability language (e.g., early termination clauses), management's ability and intent to enforce the recoverability language and the ability to generate future earnings from the agreement in excess of amounts deferred. Capitalized amounts are amortized over the shorter of the period of contractual recoverability or the corresponding period of economic benefit. Incentives not yet paid are accrued systematically and rationally based on management's estimate of each client's performance. These accruals are regularly reviewed and estimates of performance are adjusted as appropriate, based on changes in performance expectations, actual client performance, amendments to existing contracts or the execution of new contracts.
Assumptions and judgment. Estimation of client incentives relies on forecasts of payments volume, card issuance and card conversion. Performance is estimated using customer-reported information, transactional information accumulated from our systems, historical information and discussions with our clients, merchants and business partners.
Impact if actual results differ from assumptions. If actual performance or recoverable cash flows are not consistent with our estimates, client incentives may be materially different than initially recorded. Increases in incentive payments are generally driven by increased payments and transaction volume, which drive our net revenues. As a result, in the event incentive payments exceed estimates, such payments are not expected to have a material effect on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. The cumulative impact of a revision in estimates is recorded in the period such revisions become probable and estimable. For the year ended September 30, 2016, client incentives represented 18% of gross operating revenues.
Legal and Regulatory Matters
Critical estimates. We are currently involved in various legal proceedings, the outcomes of which are not within our complete control or may not be known for prolonged periods of time. Management is required to assess the probability of loss and amount of such loss, if any, in preparing our financial statements.
Assumptions and judgment. We evaluate the likelihood of a potential loss from legal or regulatory proceedings to which we are a party. We record a liability for such claims when a loss is deemed probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated. Significant judgment may be required in the determination of both probability and whether an exposure is reasonably estimable. Our judgments are subjective based on the status of the legal or regulatory proceedings, the merits of our defenses and consultation with in-house and outside legal counsel. As additional information becomes available, we reassess the potential liability related to pending claims and may revise our estimates.
Our U.S. retrospective responsibility plan only addresses monetary liabilities from settlements of, or final judgments in, the U.S. covered litigation. The plan's mechanisms include the use of the U.S. litigation escrow account. The accrual related to the U.S. covered litigation could be either higher or lower than the U.S. litigation escrow account balance. We did not record an accrual for the U.S. covered litigation during fiscal 2016. Our Europe
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retrospective responsibility plan only covers Visa Europe territory covered litigation (and resultant liabilities and losses) relating to the covered period, subject to certain limitations. See Note 3—U.S. and Europe Retrospective Responsibility Plans and Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements.
Impact if actual results differ from assumptions. Due to the inherent uncertainties of the legal and regulatory processes in the multiple jurisdictions in which we operate, our judgments may be materially different than the actual outcomes, which could have material adverse effects on our business, financial conditions and results of operations. See Note 20—Legal Matters to our consolidated financial statements.
Income Taxes
Critical estimates. In calculating our effective income tax rate, we make judgments regarding certain tax positions, including the timing and amount of deductions and allocations of income among various tax jurisdictions.
Assumptions and judgment. We have various tax filing positions with regard to the timing and amount of deductions and credits, the establishment of liabilities for uncertain tax positions and the allocation of income among various tax jurisdictions. We are also required to inventory, evaluate and measure all uncertain tax positions taken or to be taken on tax returns and to record liabilities for the amount of such positions that may not be sustained, or may only be partially sustained, upon examination by the relevant taxing authorities.
Impact if actual results differ from assumptions. Although we believe that our estimates and judgments are reasonable, actual results may differ from these estimates. Some or all of these judgments are subject to review by the taxing authorities. If one or more of the taxing authorities were to successfully challenge our right to realize some or all of the tax benefit we have recorded, and we were unable to realize this benefit, it could have a material adverse effect on our financial results and cash flows.
ITEM 7A. | Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk |
Market risk is the potential economic loss arising from adverse changes in market factors. Our exposure to financial market risks results primarily from fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates and equity prices. Aggregate risk exposures are monitored on an ongoing basis.
Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risk
We are exposed to adverse fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Risks from foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations are primarily related to adverse changes in the functional currency value of revenues generated from foreign currency-denominated transactions and adverse changes in the functional currency value of payments in foreign currencies. We manage these risks by entering into foreign currency forward contracts that hedge exposures of the variability in the functional currency equivalent of anticipated non-functional currency denominated cash flows. Our foreign currency exchange rate risk management program reduces, but does not entirely eliminate, the impact of foreign currency exchange rate movements.
The aggregate notional amounts of our foreign currency forward contracts outstanding in our exchange rate risk management program, including contracts not designated for cash flow hedge accounting, were $2.7 billion and $1.2 billion at September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The aggregate notional amount outstanding at September 30, 2016 is fully consistent with our strategy and treasury policy aimed at reducing foreign exchange risk below a predetermined and approved threshold. However, actual results could materially differ from our forecast. The effect of a hypothetical 10% increase or decrease in the value of the functional currencies is estimated to create an additional fair value gain of approximately $160 million or loss of approximately $190 million, respectively, on our foreign currency forward contracts outstanding at September 30, 2016. See Note 1—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 12—Derivative and Non-derivative Financial Instruments to our consolidated financial statements.
On June 21, 2016, we acquired 100% of the share capital of Visa Europe. On the third anniversary of the Closing, we will pay additional purchase consideration of €1 billion, plus 4.0% compound annual interest. See Note 2—Acquisition of Visa Europe to our consolidated financial statements. As such, we are exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk with respect to fluctuations of the U.S. dollar against the euro. A hypothetical 10% decline in the U.S. dollar against the euro, compared to the exchange rate at September 30, 2016, would increase the deferred purchase consideration liability by $123 million, including interest.
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We are further exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk as the functional currency of Visa Europe is the euro. Translation from the euro to the U.S. dollar is performed for balance sheet accounts using exchange rates in effect at the balance sheet date and for revenue and expense accounts using an average exchange rate for the period. Resulting translation adjustments are reported as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income or loss on the consolidated balance sheets. A hypothetical 10% change in the euro against the U.S. dollar compared to the exchange rate at September 30, 2016, could result in a foreign currency translation adjustment of $1.9 billion. In the third quarter, we designated our euro-denominated deferred consideration liability as a net investment hedge against a portion of our net investment in Visa Europe. Changes in the value of the deferred cash consideration liability, attributable to a change in exchange rates at the end of each reporting period, partially offset the foreign currency translation of the Company's net investment recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income in the Company's consolidated balance sheet. See Note 1—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 12—Derivative and Non-derivative Financial Instruments to our consolidated financial statements.
We are also subject to foreign currency exchange risk in daily settlement activities. This risk arises from the timing of rate setting for settlement with clients relative to the timing of market trades for balancing currency positions. Risk in settlement activities is limited through daily operating procedures, including the utilization of Visa settlement systems and our interaction with foreign exchange trading counterparties.
Interest Rate Risk
Our investment portfolio assets are held in both fixed-rate and adjustable-rate securities. These assets are included in cash equivalents and short-term or long-term available-for-sale investments. Investments in fixed-rate instruments carry a degree of interest rate risk. The fair value of fixed-rate securities may be adversely impacted due to a rise in interest rates. Additionally, a falling-rate environment creates reinvestment risk because as securities mature, the proceeds are reinvested at a lower rate, generating less interest income. Historically, we have been able to hold investments until maturity. Neither our operating results or cash flows have been, nor are they expected to be, materially impacted by a sudden change in market interest rates.
The fair value balances of our fixed-rate investment securities at September 30, 2016 and 2015 were $5.1 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively. A hypothetical 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates would create an estimated change in fair value of approximately $49 million on our fixed-rate investment securities at September 30, 2016. The fair value balances of our adjustable-rate debt securities were $2.2 billion and $1.7 billion at September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.
Pension Plan Risk
At September 30, 2016 and 2015, our U.S. defined benefit pension plan assets were $1.1 billion and $1.0 billion, respectively, and projected benefit obligations were $1.1 billion and $1.0 billion, respectively. A material adverse decline in the value of pension plan assets and/or the discount rate for benefit obligations would result in a decrease in the funded status of the pension plan, an increase in pension cost and an increase in required funding. A hypothetical 10% decrease in the value of pension plan assets and a 1% decrease in the discount rate would result in an aggregate decrease of approximately $254 million in the funded status and an increase of approximately $40 million in pension cost.
At September 30, 2016, our non-U.S. defined benefit pension plan assets were $415 million and projected benefit obligations were $474 million. A material adverse decline in the value of pension plan assets and/or the discount rate for benefit obligations would result in a decrease in the funded status of the pension plan, an increase in pension cost and an increase in required funding. A hypothetical 10% decrease in the value of pension plan assets and a 1% decrease in the discount rate would result in an aggregate decrease of approximately $127 million in the funded status and an increase of approximately $9 million in pension cost.
We will continue to monitor the performance of pension plan assets and market conditions as we evaluate the amount of our contribution to the pension plan for fiscal 2017, if any, which would be made in September 2017.
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ITEM 8. | Financial Statements and Supplementary Data |
VISA INC.
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Page | |
As of September 30, 2016 and 2015 and for the years ended September 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014 | |
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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Board of Directors and Stockholders
Visa Inc.:
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Visa Inc. and subsidiaries as of September 30, 2016 and 2015, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, changes in equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended September 30, 2016. We also have audited Visa Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2016, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). Visa Inc.’s management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions