Earnings Labs

Visa Inc. (V)

Q1 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Jan 29, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Visa Inc’s Fiscal Q1 2015 Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode, until the question-and-answer session. Today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. And now to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Jack Carsky, Head of Global Investor Relations. Mr. Carsky, you may begin.

Jack Carsky

Management

Thanks, David. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Visa Inc.’s fiscal first quarter earnings conference call. With us today are Charlie Scharf, Visa’s CEO; and Byron Pollitt, Visa’s Chief Financial Officer. This call is currently being webcast over the Internet and is accessible on the Investor Relations section of our Web site at www.investor.visa.com. A replay of the webcast will also be archived on our site for 30 days. A PowerPoint deck containing financial and statistical highlights of today’s commentary was posted to our Web site prior to this call. Let me also remind you that this presentation may include forward-looking statements. These statements aren’t guarantees of future performance and our actual results could materially differ as the result of a variety of factors. Additional information concerning those factors is available in our most recent reports on Forms 10-K and Q, which you can find on the SEC’s Web site and the Investor Relations section of ours. For historical non-GAAP or pro forma related financial information disclosed in this call, the related GAAP measures and other information required by Reg G of the SEC are available in the financial and statistical summary accompanying today’s press release. This release can also be accessed through the IR section of our Web site. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Byron.

Byron Pollitt

Management

Thanks, Jack. Let me begin with my usual callouts and observations. First, as you can see from the earnings press release, we announced that our Board of Directors has authorized a four-for-one stock split, each Class A stockholder of record. At the close of business on February 13, 2015 will receive three additional shares for every share held on the Record Date. In the form of a 100% stock dividend and trading will began on a split adjusted basis on March 19, 2015. Due to the structure of the various classes, holders of Class B and C shares will not receive a stock dividend. Instead, the conversion rate for the Class B and C shares will be adjusted after the stock split, so that the Class B and C stockholders will retain the same relative ownership percentages that they had prior to the stock split. Second callout involves FX. Since our last earnings call, the U.S dollar has continued to strengthen against most of our key currencies. Based on the December 31, forward exchange rate, we project an incremental 50 basis points negative impact on our full-year revenue growth. Third call out relates to cross-border activity. Cross-border volumes softened 2 percentage points in the September quarter -- in the December quarter to 8% growth in constant dollars and a further 1 percentage point to 7% through the 21st of January. Once again, FX is an important contributor as a stronger event anticipated U.S dollar has led to substantially reduce travel into the U.S from Europe, Canada, and Latin America, notably Brazil. Beyond FX, the severe economic challenges in Russia have also been a notable drag on cross-border results. In total, our outlook for cross-border volume driven revenue growth in fiscal 2015 is approximately a half percentage point less than when…

Charles W. Scharf

Management

Thank you very much, Byron, and good afternoon, everyone. First of all, I’m just going to start by telling you, I think that we as a management team are quite pleased with our results. We continue to produce strong and consistent results in the global economic environment which is providing more headwinds than tailwinds. Consumers spend continues at reasonable levels, but it is not accelerating and we expect gas prices to continue to be a near-term headwind. Geopolitical tensions are playing a more meaningful role in our results as they’ve at different times during our past. Having said that, our growth is still strong and well in excess of consumer spending growth as the movement from cash to electronic payments continues regardless of economic and geopolitical events. As most of you probably know, we’ve put forth a proposal in this year’s proxy to amend our corporate charter that would position us to effect a stock split at an appropriate time and at the discretion of our Board of Directors. As you can see from the announcement today the proposal did indeed pass and our Board of Directors declared a four-for-one stock split in the form of a stock dividend. This action in addition to our dividend increase and our previously announced share purchase -- repurchase program are all indicators of our confidence in our future. Our long-term outlook continues to be bright as our investments in digital payments provide growing opportunities for us. Let me make a couple of comments now about our first quarter financial results. As Byron said, it was another strong quarter driven by solid underlying payment volumes in processed transactions globally. As expected, operating revenue grew 7% nominally or 9% on a constant currency basis, while expenses increased 6% and earnings per share registered a healthy…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Darrin Peller of Barclays. Please go ahead with your question.

Darrin Peller

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead with your question

Nice job on the quarter. Just want to touch first on what you were mentioning around FX volatility levels. As I think, Byron, you mentioned earlier they clearly have increased. Just to be clear, not including that in your outlook at least you're including -- are you including the levels that we have seen recently? And just kind of going forward with that or are you including lower levels? And maybe can you give us the size and sort of magnitude of what kind of impact it could mean if you were to sort of extrapolate off the card levels of volatility for the rest of the year on your cross-border volume?

Byron Pollitt

Management

So we’ve included our forward projection of FX rates based on the December 31 forwards. So the numbers that we quoted, the guidance that we have reaffirmed, fully reflect the most current thinking and data we’ve using the forward exchange rates of December 31. With regards to volatility, which is another aspect of FX, the projection assumes some continuation of what we’ve seen, but we’re -- as indicated in my remarks, cautious here with regards to the balance of the year and that this is an area that it is very difficult to forecast. So clearly a good start to the year with regards to volatility it is trending, it has performed above the 10 year medium which we referred to, I believe on our last earnings call. But this is an area that goes up and down, so it’s unlike FX and its impacts on our translations which we’ve projected using the December forwards throughout the year with volatility we’re forecasting a bit closer in and taking out what we believe is a conservative posture in the second half.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question David?

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Jason Kupferberg of Jefferies. Please go ahead with your question.

Jason Kupferberg

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead with your question

Hi, guys. So the strong dollar obviously as you highlighted has had that negative impact on U.S inbound cross-border travel from some of the key international card. So I just wanted to get your take on whether or not you think that the 7% cross-border volume number through the first three weeks of January will prove to be the trough for the year, because I know you do have some easier comparisons coming up in the March and June quarters in particular.

Byron Pollitt

Management

That one is really hard. We have -- we are projecting off our trending, but the dollar is continuing to strengthen and that strengthening dollar is fundamental to our forecast for the balance of the year in terms of its impact on volume and subsequent impact on revenue.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question David?

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from David Togut of Evercore ISI. Please go ahead with your question.

David Togut

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Please go ahead with your question

Thank you. Could you provide any clarity you might have Charlie on the rules that are governing the opening of China's domestic payments market and when this might be material for Visa?

Charles W. Scharf

Management

I guess couple of things first. First I just want to be clear; China is an important market for us today. We don't compete domestically for transactions, but we’ve very close relationships with banks in China where we issue cards that are used outside of China. So to the extent and at the appropriate time when the Chinese marketplace opens we're not starting from ground Zero relative to building relationships within China. Relative to the timing of the open, we really unfortunately cannot provide any additional clarity. We know what you know, which is that the Chinese government made the statement that they will allow domestic competition that they’re in the process of writing those rules and my guess is we'll see them when you see them and we continue to work with our Chinese partners and meet with the government. But relative to when the market will open, what the rules will look like and how meaningful it would be, we really don't know. I would just remind you, well I know a lot of you know this fact, but when they’ve opened the market up in other industries that are industries somewhat like ours, it generally takes a period of time, sometimes quite a significant period of time before it's going to become something significant for the Company.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question please?

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Bill Carcache of Nomura Securities. Please go ahead with your question.

Bill Carcache

Analyst · Nomura Securities. Please go ahead with your question

Thank you. Have you seen any notable difference in the impact of lower gas prices on affluent consumers versus the general population? And maybe on the comments that you’ve made about cross-border, could you kind of address whether you're seeing any early signs of more U.S travel abroad given the strengthening of the U.S dollar and if so, is any of that factored into your outlook?

Byron Pollitt

Management

What we see -- let me take the second one first. What we see for U.S and abroad given the strong dollar is that it has sustained. What we haven’t seen is a -- any sort of spike in U.S travel abroad, which you might hypothesize what happened, given the stronger dollar. But what we’ve seen is a sustaining of healthy growth rates on outbound U.S travel. With regards to gas and impact on affluent, as I mentioned in my remarks, gasoline spend is more debit rated for us than credit. We’ve seen very little impact on spent at the credit level, which is where you would expect more of the affluent to participate. We have seen some impact on debit, which is where you would expect the less affluent to play in greater numbers. So as Charlie talked about, there has been a clear noticeable reduction in debit spend as it relates to gas in the U.S., a portion of which have been redistributed to other categories. But the bulk of which has been for at least for the moment based on our surveys being banked [ph] in the savings category. And just keep in mind that the average of $60 a month -- $60 a month in its own way doesn’t change -- it's unlikely that people change their behavior. I mean if you boil it down to people filling up their tanks once a week, at that point you're down to $15 a week, how are you going to spend differently? So the places that we’re seeing it, which I mentioned are the grocery, fast foods, QSRs especially architecture places where you would see that kind of additional dollar amount. But as I said from a survey is, we know that 50% of its being saved. That amount of money accumulates. People start to see that thy have additional money and then over a period of time we’ll potentially buy higher ticket items is what we would anticipate.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Don Fandetti of Citigroup. Please go ahead with your question.

Don Fandetti

Analyst · Citigroup. Please go ahead with your question

Yes, Charlie, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit on the rollout of tokenization for online, and when you think it could also rollout internationally around Apple Pay. And then lastly, have you seen increased discussions from other smartphone manufacturers and players post to Apple Pay?

Charles W. Scharf

Management

Sure. On our tokenization efforts we are very actively working with issuers in other parts of the world, and would expect to see some tokenized solutions in the marketplace this calendar year. On the topic of other people whether its handset manufacturers or others there is a very, very active dialogue that’s going on that was happening, but I think the work that Apple has done and winding up in-market with their solution, it certainly accelerated peoples thinking. And we’ve been very, very clear relative to ourselves which is, we are very excited about what Apple is doing. We think it’s a very elegant solution that we are thrilled with our participation in. But we want to enable as many scalable solutions that have wonderful customer interfaces that adhere to the highest security standards. And we would expect to see a series of those in the next couple of quarters come to market.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question, David.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Sanjay Sakhrani of KBW. Please go ahead with your questions.

Sanjay Sakhrani

Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead with your questions

I just have one more on FX. How did the hedges affect next year, I mean, did they differ some of the impact that we might have seen if you weren’t hedged this year into next year. And then just one data point question, do you know that sum total of those that are still opt out in the merchant litigation? Thank you.

Byron Pollitt

Management

With regards to the hedges, the answer is, yes. Beginning with the month of October which was, it’s the beginning of our fiscal year. We start doing 12 months forecasts out and start layering in hedges 12 months out. So, January -- this is January, so the hedges we put on this month will be for -- will cover, throughout the end of January we will have the hedges in place that will cover the first four months of next years fiscal year. And I’d say for better or for worse. If the dollar continues to strengthen, then the hedges will provide benefit and if it goes the other way, the opposite, and remember the objective here is to simply dampen, not eliminate. We are not insulated from FX. What we try and do with the hedges is flatten out somewhat the volatility. And I might also add, that what we solve through in hedges is not revenue, its actually operating income. So, we hedge again certain risk point levels by currency against our operating income, which means we use the expenses in other currencies as a natural hedge and then we put on our transactional hedges beyond the natural hedge of the expense we incur in the non-U.S. currencies.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Moshe Katri of Cowen. Please go ahead with your question.

Moshe Katri

Analyst · Cowen. Please go ahead with your question

Hey, guys. Can you talk a bit about tokenization? Where are we in terms of introducing on the service to banks, and some of the feedback, and then maybe you can talk a bit about, how should we think about this looking into next year? Thanks.

Charles W. Scharf

Management

So, those financial institutions that I referenced in my opening remarks are all using our token services for Apple Pay. And as I said, we’re working with another 500 or so institutions here currently to get them involved in Apple Pay and therefore using our to tokenization service because that is a prerequisite for participating in Apple Pay. As I said before, we continue to work with issuers around the world and expect to see more tokenized solutions as time goes on. What was the second part of the question?

Byron Pollitt

Management

There was a second part that I didn’t answer to Sanjay’s question. So let me just, if I could let me just add that in real quick. The question was, I believe how much opt outs remain in the MDL litigation. That number we don’t have, but immediately accessible. But to be hopeful here, we think it’s better to think about it in terms of the payment volume represented by the opt-outs. Charlie tell you that, to date we have settled and actually paid out of our escrow $335 million or so, out of an escrow that was $1.5 billion at the beginning of the fiscal year. Think of that as settling out a little over 20% of the payment volume represented by the opt-outs before these payments began.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Bob Napoli of William Blair. Please.

Robert Napoli

Analyst · William Blair. Please

Thank you. Good afternoon. I just wanted to get an update on CyberSource if I could and, the trends in that business what you’re doing to improve that business and, who maybe -- what competitors are you finding most difficult as far as loosing market share?

Byron Pollitt

Management

So, on CyberSource we had a good holiday season. We grew at -- transactions grew at about 16%, that’s up from 12% in the prior reporting period. We honestly is that, which we have mentioned on prior calls, we missed an investment cycle maybe to in this product, we are rapidly reinvesting, re-platforming to enable much better client service as transactions accelerate in terms of capacity utilization. And so, this is a business we’re very committed to. It’s been an excellent vertical extension of our business model and we remain very vested in bringing the platform to world class levels again and to accelerate the growth rates above which we have even most recently been experiencing.

Charles W. Scharf

Management

And the only thing I would get -- just add a couple of things to it. Number one is, I mean we think about CyberSource in two different ways. We think about it as a, how is it doing as a standalone business? And we think about how is CyberSource helping the rest of Visa. As Byron mentioned on the standalone business, we’ve been very clear that we did miss an investment cycle here. We had a very clear roadmap internally that both relates to customer facing improvements such as time to onboard and things like that, as well as some infrastructure changes that we’re making. That’s a roadmap of call it a year or so, and that’s how long it will take us. So we would expect to see some volatility from the existing client base as we go through those changes but it’s the right thing for us for the long-term. Separately from us and this gets to just the overall point for us with CyberSource. CyberSource is an extremely important part of the company. When we talk about leveraging merchant relationships and talk about wanting to build broader capabilities and things that, conversations that we’re having in the marketplace, in order to do that CyberSource is just a wonderful addition for us to be able to be a partner to either enable those conversations or to be part of those conversations. And quite frankly for us to start from scratch on merchant relationships is very, very different than to be able to start with a CyberSource inside the company.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question, David.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Jim Schneider of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.

James Schneider

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question

Thanks. Good afternoon and thanks for taking my question. Relative to your commentary on incentives, I believe last time you had talked about incentives being front half loaded in the first part of the fiscal year. And I think today you said that you now expect them to be, to trend upwards as we go through the year. Has something changed in terms of deals pushed out or additional deals signed. Maybe give us some color on the cadence of those incentives as we go through the year?

Byron Pollitt

Management

One of the things we’ve learned over the past seven years is that, we have been doing earnings calls is that incentives is very difficult to project quarter-by-quarter. We have gotten pretty good at projecting it on the full year basis. And so, with every passing quarter we get smarter about the deals that close, and the deals that are taking longer to close that we thought might close. And so, nothing has occurred that has changed our outlook for the year. But we are reaffirming the lumpiness of incentives and that’s really what we’re seeing here. We have one quarter in the bag and three to go and we’re very comfortable with our guidance of 17% to 18.5% and we expect the three out-quarters to run at a higher rate than what you saw in the recently completed Q1.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Smitti Srethapramote of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead with your question.

Smitti Srethapramote

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead with your question

Thank you. At your analyst day a year and half ago, you guys estimated that there would be 38 million mobile plant cell [ph] locations by 2017. Just wondering if you guys can give us an update in terms of how things have played out versus your initial expectations and are there any particular geographies where you’ve seen acceptance increased noticeably due to mPOS?

Byron Pollitt

Management

That’s a good question, and I have the number, but I don’t have it now in terms of how many mPOS locations there are. But the number is growing extraordinarily quickly. The last number -- Canada, Australia and other places, I mean the numbers that I saw were several quarters ago, actually probably its almost a year ago, we’re probably at $5 million and I believe the number was over $10 million, the last time I checked. So, I mean, the growth is happening and in addition to just the mPOS devices out there, usage is what's extraordinarily important. So, we can make sure we get you that number and next time we talk publicly we’ll make sure we’ll mention it, so everyone has it.

Jack Carsky

Management

Our next question, David.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Tien-tsin Huang of JPMorgan. Please go ahead with your question.

Tien-tsin Huang

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead with your question

Great, thanks. Charlie, it sounds like you said -- I think you said you can protect the bottom line of, if the macro deteriorates here. Can you elaborate, was that an expense comment and maybe can you just give us an update on the timing of the CFO search? Thanks.

Charles W. Scharf

Management

Sure. So, on the first one, listen I think my comments are quite simple which is, the economic environment in terms of what we’re seeing with the strengthening dollar obviously makes our jobs more difficult. The point of what I was trying to say was, we are not changing our spending patterns, the projects we have underway based upon what we’re seeing in the world today. We’re not laying people off. We’re not even thinking about doing anything like that. We’re continuing to push forward to grow the company because we think that’s the right long-term thing for us to do given the opportunity, and we think as Byron just went through, we think we’ll continue to perform as a company. Having said that, we also just always remind ourselves that like any company you can always tighten up and you can always go through and prioritize and figure out what the most important thing to do is and you really have to do every last thing. And if we got particularly noticed that what we are seeing in the world would affect us in any kind of meaningful way beyond what we expected. We have the ability to do that. And we’re not contemplating that and even if we did that, we would assume -- assume we would do it in an intelligent way that still allows us to invest in the right thing. So, the point is if we had to and if we thought it was prudent we could reduce the expense base of the company or certainly slow the expense growth but not something we’re contemplating doing right now. And on the CFO search, I would hope -- I hope we have something to report shortly on that.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Bryan Keane of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead with your question.

Bryan Keane

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead with your question

Hi, guys. Just a couple of clarifications. I guess, Charlie what's the strategy for rolling out tokenization for browser based ecommerce? I guess, I was under the impression, this spring you guys will be rolling something out. I’m just curious what the plans are there? And then, secondly Byron on FX, just given your comments on some of the hedges in the rolling off of some hedges. Should we think start modeling in a couple of point impact for fiscal year ’16? Thanks so much.

Charles W. Scharf

Management

So, on the first piece. In the spring of this year we will have some tokenized solutions in the marketplace for some browser enabled solutions.

Byron Pollitt

Management

Okay. And on the FX, Bryan I wish I had a crystal ball. But let me relay the following circumstance which is the dilemma. When we gave foreign exchange guidance on the fourth quarter call we had a full year of hedges in place. Three months later, we’re saying that the interim FX developments have negatively impacted our revenue growth by about 50 basis points. So, within three months of our last projection of FX we’re off 50 basis points in the year it was hedged. So, we are not yet ready to talk about FY ’16. That said, your projection of just how strong, how much further strengthening the U.S. dollar can achieve. How long it can sustain at this level before the inevitable cycle goes back the other way, is as good a guess as ours will be. In terms of impact, we’re using as our best proxy the December 31, forward exchange rates.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question, David.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Moshe Orenbuch of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead with your question.

Moshe Orenbuch

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead with your question

Great, thanks. Could you talk a little bit, I mean you mentioned during the opening comments about the holiday spending being a little different kind of debit spending being affected by gasoline. Are there trends that you think that will be persisting throughout 2015. I know we’ve got some differences in the way tax refunds are going to be paid this year. I mean any other things that we should be aware of as we go through ’15 particularly in the U.S. and keeping that stuff in mind?

Byron Pollitt

Management

I guess, because we spend a lot of time tearing apart everything that we can find about the holiday spend numbers. The stuff -- the things I talked about were the most important for us isolating the conversion, so you get a real underlying view of spend. We have talked about the impact of gas and what we would expect to be the ongoing impact of gas. The only thing which we didn’t cover here which we spend a lot of time talking about is ecommerce volume. Ecommerce was extraordinarily strong during the holiday season which is a continuation of what we have seen. Growth rates of ecommerce were two to three times what they were in the physical world. And for us, we like that, because cash doesn’t work in the online world. And so, we have got a much higher participation rate in the ecommerce world than we do in the face to face world. Other than that nothing is coming to mind, Moshe.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question, David.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Craig Maurer of Autonomous. Please go ahead with your question.

Craig Maurer

Analyst · Autonomous. Please go ahead with your question

Yes, good evening. Thanks. First, could you give us a little bit of commentary on the impact that pricing changes that we have seen reported by the acquirers will contribute to your guidance on revenue growth? And secondly, we have seen EVMCo produce a draft of 3DS 2.0 based on Visa and MasterCard’s work indicating that you’ll be able to take additional authentication metrics into account starting in, at the beginning of ’16. Does this also mean that what we’ll get a card holder present like interchange tier to show up at time as well? Thanks.

Charles W. Scharf

Management

Let me take the first one. As we described on our fourth quarter call, we have a number of price adjustments that will take place in the second half, U.S. acquiring card service fees in April roughly two basis points, about 40 basis points on U.S. acquiring ISA again in that April timeframe, these get faced in. So, no impact in Q2, fiscal Q2, a beginning in fiscal Q3, full impact in Q4. So as you think about modeling it on a fiscal year basis we would expect our lowest revenue growth rate to be in the upcoming Q2, and then as the price adjustments start to kick in delving in Q3 and then by Q4 having an impact that would bring us to double digit revenue growth in fiscal Q4. Put that altogether and we are still reaffirming the guidance we gave in Q4 for the full year, but today largely because of FX at the lower end of that range.

Byron Pollitt

Management

And then on your second question, I wouldn’t relate those two dates. The work we’re doing on 3D secure, in re-looking at the rates as we said. As with tokenized solutions being in the marketplace, we are constantly looking at what makes sense, constantly looking at the fraud, looking at the value added. And if it makes sense for us at some point to do something different within a change rates, we’ll do it. But right now, we have no specific plans to talk about.

Jack Carsky

Management

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Tim Willi of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead with your question.

Timothy Willi

Analyst · Wells Fargo. Please go ahead with your question

Thanks and good afternoon. Charlie, just going back to your comments, I guess throughout the class action that is starting to settle with those that opted out et cetera. Any comments you would have just around sort of the tone of collaboration, with yourself and the retailers would sort of come to the end of this, and just trying that into anything we should think about maybe longer term around rebates and incentives and the mix that would move more towards retailers versus banks, if there is anything we should consider there?

Charles W. Scharf

Management

No, on the first piece, listen I think -- our relationships with merchants as we have said are extraordinarily important to us. Being able to settle these lawsuits is a good thing. It puts that conversation behind us and it an opportunity to talk about things that we can do together, the most obvious thing that I can talk about Visa Checkout. The idea of merchants advertising along side us, promoting something isn’t something that would even have been contemplated a couple of years ago. And they are doing it because -- not because they like us as people, they’re doing it because we have a product which they believe is good for them. When you’re buying something in the ecommerce space, you put something in the card to checkout. What you want as a retailer is you want someone to actually pay for that. And for us to be able to bring a solution to market which has a much higher close rate, which is easy to use, where we can leverage our brand jointly, and ultimately by the way bring new customers to them is something that excites them. And so, those are the kinds of conversations that are very different that we’re able to have today. Not everyone is in that bucket, but that’s the way we’re thinking about it. We would like to have that kind of partnership with everyone. And as I said before, that’s something that is going to play out over a long period of time. We know we have to prove to merchants that we can show up with solutions that are better for them, as I went through at Visa Checkout. As we announced a quarter or two ago with something called Visa Transaction Advisors, where we’ve now turned out broaden analytics talents towards helping oil companies reduce fraud at the fuel pumps through risk scoring that we do on a real time basis for them. So, I would describe it as, it’s encouraging, but it’s a long-term discussion where there have been proof points in the marketplace and you’ll start seeing them over a period of time.

Byron Pollitt

Management

And with regards to incentives, Tim, the main action as it relates to incentives doesn’t really today, it has little to do with MDL and much more to do with outrank in debit related to routing. That said going forward, I think as we increasingly introduce new product initiatives, new services and where we want to accelerate trial and adoption, we’re prepared to put some incentives on the table to help crime in the pump and as a way of crafting a smart market entry using the merchants as a launch partner for services that will be good for the network and all its participants.

Jack Carsky

Management

And with that we have time for one last question.

Operator

Operator

And your final question comes from Lisa Ellis of Bernstein. Please go ahead with your question.

Lisa Ellis

Analyst · Bernstein. Please go ahead with your question

[Indiscernible] at the end. Thanks guys. Hey, Charlie I just wanted to follow-up on the point you made on ecommerce. First, could you give an update on the mix of revenue or volume you’re seeing to the e-commerce channel and the card mix as well? And then, second question is about the fed strategy paper on approving the U.S payment system that was released on Monday. I’d love just your thoughts on that, the level of involvement or engagement you guys have had with the fed and how you see it impacting your business?

Byron Pollitt

Management

So on the first don’t have a lot of color. We’ve not release numbers like that either by product or exactly what the mix is, but obviously given you what the relative growth rates are and so hopefully that’s helpful. On the fed paper, first of all, we’re very actively involved with the fed as many others are. We participate in the dialogue that they’ve -- that they’ve had up to this point leading up to the paper that they just released. And our experience has been that they’ve been extremely inclusive with all partners seeking input. I’d say, in terms of what it means for us, I mean, I don't think any of us exactly know and I think that will play itself out. What we do know is that we’ve a network that works extraordinarily well, that provides great value for people that run transactions over it and a lot of what we do isn’t easily duplicated. And its one thing to say that you're going to build something, its nothing to actually get it in the marketplace with the ability to put value added services around it. The people that participate in our network, the four parties get paid for it or they get benefits from it and they do it because they actually get those things out of it. So there are some very natural reasons why networks like ours and our competitors are attractive in the marketplace out there whether you’re an issuer or whether you’re an acceptor of the products. And as we’ve talked about, what we spend our time, I mean, I don’t want to underestimate the importance of running the network well, we spend a lot of time making sure that that’s the case. We spend a lot of time on network security, but we spend even more time building value added products around it and the idea is that you run transaction over the Visa network and there is more value to you, because of either services we provide, whether its on a risk basis, whether its things that can help you grow your revenues and we’re working on a series of things now that you will start to see in the marketplace. So again over a period of time, if people have a choice where to run their transaction over it, we’re not going to sit here and say well, we just have a really good network, so you should run it over ours which we want to give both merchants, issuers and consumers ultimately reasons to want to use our network as opposed to any other solution out there. End of Q&A

Jack Carsky

Management

And with that, we want to thank everybody for joining us today. If anyone has any follow-up questions, feel free to give Victoria or myself a call. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, it does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.