Visa Inc. has agreed to a memorandum of understanding to settle its U.S. merchant class multi-district interchange litigation (MDL) claim; Visa has also reached an agreement in principle to settle all claims brought by the individual merchant plaintiffs. The company's share of the cash portion will total approximately $4.4 billion and will be paid from the litigation escrow account, which is part of the retrospective responsibility plan. As a result, we are affirming our long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Visa at 'A+/A-1'. The stable outlook reflects our belief that the retrospective responsibility plan effectively shields Visa from all covered litigations. We expect the company to continue to post robust profitability metrics while maintaining excellent liquidity and capital levels.
