Visa quarterly profit jumps on unrestrained consumer spending

(Reuters) - Visa Inc reported a 33% rise in third-quarter profit on Tuesday, as the world's largest payments processor gained from robust consumer spending that shows no signs of a pullback despite worries of an economic downturn.

Visa's results closely mirror American Express which gained hugely from record card spending, helping the latter raise its annual revenue forecast on Friday.

The world's largest payments processor raked in higher revenue as payment volumes jumped 12% during the third quarter, helped by a 40% surge in cross-border volumes.

"Visa is obviously exposed to general consumer spending, but the biggest near-term issue for Visa is cross-border volume, since they take much higher fees on cross-border transactions," said Brett Horn, senior analyst at Morningstar.

Earlier this month, Visa and Mastercard were asked by a committee in Britain's parliament to justify recent rises in their card transaction fees after the country's payments regulator expressed concerns.

Net income rose to $3.4 billion, or $1.60 per share, in the three months ended June 30, from $2.58 billion, or $1.18 per share, a year earlier.

(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)