Lebanese are 'last minute shoppers' according to Visa International

Furthermore, statistics for the month revealed that Lebanese shoppers tend to leave the majority of their purchasing until only a couple of days before Christmas.

During the month of December 2003, the total number of point of sale transactions made at shops and services with Lebanese Visa cards reached over 170,000 transactions, resulting in a 27% increase over the previous year.

When analyzing the entire month, Tuesday 23rd December witnessed the highest activity with 30% more merchant transactions than any other day to reach over 12,000 Visa transactions. This equates to nearly 500 transactions every hour of the day.

According to Dr. Jim Finlay, a visiting Professor of Marketing at the Lebanese American University, use of cards is indicative of the local personality: 'Essentially the Lebanese are polychronic, meaning that they do more than one thing at a time. As a result they get overloaded with activities and some things get done at the last minute. This is in contrast to Western markets, which tend to be seen as monochronic with much of the shopping generally taking place in advance of Christmas.'

Behind every Visa payment is the successful working of Visa's worldwide processing system - VisaNet - one of the most reliable and sophisticated processing centres in the world forming the backbone of every transaction and ensuring the swift and successful completion of Visa transactions every second of the day. VisaNet is made up of 25 large mainframe computers, more than 230 mid-range systems and roughly 300 applications running more than 50 million lines of code. During Visa's peak holiday shopping season in December 2002, VisaNet reached a peak authorization rate of over 4,700 messages per second, meanwhile the average peak message rate for the year was 2,800 transactions per second.

Speaking on behalf of Visa International, Said Shoqum, General Manager for Levant added: 'These Visa statistics provide a fascinating insight into Lebanese shopping trends. We are thrilled to see such a strong increase in card payments, however the most encouraging factor is that approximately 70% of the transactions were made with debit cards such as Visa Electron, demonstrating that Visa is not just a credit card for high value expenditures, but rather an essential every-day payment tool.'

Visa Electron debit cards have a dual function; They not only provide national and international cash access through Visa's unrivalled global network of more than 800,000 ATM machines, but can also be used when shopping in the same way as a credit card, with the transaction being debited directly from their bank account. Cardholders can therefore manage and regulate funds more efficiently and use their Visa Electron debit card for everyday shopping at home and around the world.

Shoqum explains the growth trend: 'More and more member banks are introducing Visa Electron debit to their customers in replacement of their proprietary ATM-only cards. Banks recognize that Visa Electron is truly a global payment instrument and far more convenient than using cash or cheques.'

'I am sure that this level of convenience has been the reason for the huge growth of debit payments in Lebanon,' explained Shoqum noting that another advantage of debit cards is the correlation with economic development due to the increased bank deposits, greater transparency and accountability of electronic payments, which provide banks with the funds to support the development of the local economy.

'We are confident that the region will continue to witness further growth in Visa debit card usage as more banks, merchants and cardholders further understand the benefits of cards over cash,' Shoqum concluded.