CREDIT card processor Visa Inc on Wednesday said it had a narrower loss for its fiscal fourth quarter, and adjusted results topped expectations as service, data processing and international transaction fees all rose.

The firm also pared back its growth forecast, citing the slowing economy, and shares fell in after-hours trading.

Visa reported a loss of US$356 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with a loss of US$1.6 billion, or 96 cents a share, a year ago.

Adjusted for US$1.1 billion in reserves set aside to cover litigation costs, US$70 million in restructuring charges and other items, the company posted a profit of US$448 million, or 58 cents a share.

The year-earlier quarter included US$2.6 billion in reserves set aside for litigation costs.

Revenue rose 17 percent to US$1.71 billion from US$1.46 billion last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected adjusted profit of 55 cents a share, on revenue of US$1.68 billion.

Visa said payment volume grew 15 percent during the quarter to US$699 billion, and the number of transactions stayed strong globally, up 14 percent.

Service fees rose 8 percent from last year, to US$788 million, while data processing fees jumped 18 percent to US$548 million. International transaction fees shot up 45 percent, to US$512 million.

Operating expenses dropped 44 percent to US$2.2 billion.

"Although no company is immune to the challenges of this economic environment, we believe Visa's network business model, the continuing secular shift to electronic payments and diversity across both products and geographies offer a degree of resilience to our organization," according to Chairman and CEO Joseph Saunders.

Noting that debit card use represents more than 53 percent of Visa's payments transactions worldwide, he said it is "particularly important to our results in the current environment."