The big picture is that while pandemic-related anxieties and restrictions make payment cards as indispensable as ever for a high proportion of consumers, the severe downturn in international travel has taken its toll when it comes to cross-border transactions.

The payment processor’s cross-border volume was said to be down 16 per cent over the full fiscal year to September 30, with the corresponding drop put at 29 per cent for the final quarter.

Net income for July-September was also down 29 per cent from a year earlier at $2.14 billion (£1.6 billion/€1.8 billion) on net revenues down 17 per cent to $5.1 billion (£3.9 billion/€4.3 billion).

For the full year, net income was down a more modest 10 per cent to $10.9 billion (£8.3 billion/€9.2 billion), and net revenues down 5 per cent to $21.85 billion (£16.6 billion/€18.35 billion).

Alfred Kelly, chairman and chief executive, said that "while our business drivers and financial results were impacted by COVID-19 in 2020", the company had made "significant progress in advancing our growth strategy".

Kelly went on: "As the world turns increasingly to digital payments, we see tremendous opportunity for growth."

Visa, the payment technology partner of the Olympic Games, has been a worldwide Olympic sponsor for three and a half decades, since 1986.

The company last renewed its membership of the IOC’s The Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship programme in late-July 2018, extending through until 2032.