Higher Merchant and Cardholder Payment Volumes Boost U.S. Bancorp’s Revenues

U.S. Bancorp, owner of the big merchant acquirer Elavon Inc., generated 36% of its first-quarter non-interest income from payments, according to the Minneapolis-based company’s first-quarter earnings report released Wednesday.

U.S. Bancorp reported $849 million of its total $2.33 billion in non-interest income came from payment sources such merchant fees, interchange from purchases on its consumer credit and debit cards, and commercial cards and related corporate-payment products. Payments revenues increased by $40 million, or 4.9% from $809 million a year earlier. The bank attributed the increase to higher card spending, more merchant volume, and more revenue from corporate payments.

Merchant-processing revenues totaled $378 million, up 1.3% from $373 million in 2016’s first quarter. But merchant dollar volume processed slipped a hair to $94 billion from $94.2 billion a year earlier despite a 0.6% increase in transactions to 1.21 billion.

U.S. Bancorp’s first-quarter consumer credit card charge volume increased 8.5% to $21 billion while debit card volume grew 3.2% to $16.1 billion. Corporate payment-services volume jumped 7.6% to $14.2 billion.

Elavon’s new chief executive, Jamie Walker, recently told Digital Transactions News that  he is focusing on e-commerce and new partnerships to drive future growth.