Credit card firm Visa saw strong earnings in the third quarter despite a slowdown in the US economy as international transactions continued to grow, while rival MasterCard was in the red after settling a lawsuit with American Express, the firms said Thursday.

Visa, the world's largest credit card company, said profits rose more than 40 per cent in its third quarter to 422 million dollars, or 51 cents per share, from 299 million dollars in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 18 per cent to 1.6 billion dollars, the San Francisco-based firm said.

MasterCard reported losses of 747 million dollars in its second quarter on one-time losses related to an anti-trust suit with American Express. Excluding one-time expenses of 1 billion dollars related to the suit, MasterCard saw profits rise 10 per cent to 276 million dollars, the second-largest credit card firm said in New York.

Revenue rose 25 per cent to 1.2 billion dollars.

MasterCard settled a year-long dispute with American Express for 1.8 billion dollars, after American Express accused its rivals of blocking banks from offering its cards. Visa settled last year for 2.3 billion dollars.

The number of Visa cards rose worldwide by 14 per cent to 1.6 billion. MasterCard lost 11 per cent of its card holders to 951 million.