Visa CEO sees debit cards charging forward

Americans have long loved to use plastic when buying stuff. And increasingly the cards they're using are debit cards, data released by Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA), the two largest card networks, show. But is that shift sustainable?

Visa CEO Joe Saunders sure thinks so. That's what he told analysts and investors in a conference call Tuesday after his company announced quarterly earnings that exceeded the market's expectations. Debit card use will continue to grow, and "I don't think there's any question about that for a lot of reasons," he said.