The International Visa Company, the largest payment system company in the world, revealed that its Middle East agent banks had issued more than four million visa credit cards to their customers last year.
According to Al-Watan newspaper, the number of the Visa credit card subscribers in the Sultanate of Oman grew by 116 percent, reaching 255,000 subscribers last year. The value of the total spending through the Visa cards in the sultanate grew by 190 percent, reaching $596 million last year.
The Regional Director General of the Visa Company in the Middle East estimates the annual purchases through the Visa credit cards in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at $11 billion. The executive also estimates that there are 1,655,214 Visa subscribers in the kingdom.
The annual purchases through Visa cards in the United Arab Emirates is presently valued at $4 billion, and the number of Visa subscribers in the UAE is estimated at 900,000. The Visa executive attributed the spread of the Visa cards in the UAE to the launching of successful promoting and marketing strategies such as the Dubai Shopping Festival and the installing of modern technologies.
The annual purchases through the Visa credit cards in Qatar are estimated at $516 million. The executive also estimates that there are now 117,000 visa subscribers in the state—a 79 percent rise compared with last year. —(Albawaba-MEBG)
