No one should be surprised to find credit card companies making higher profits during a recession. With the cruddy economy, it is not at all surprising that more consumers are taking more credit card debt on than before. However, Visa has posted great first quarter numbers, with profit jumping 33%.

“Our performance was fueled by higher than expected payments volume growth,” Joseph Saunders, chief executive of Visa, said in a statement. “We are increasingly optimistic that economic growth will gradually improve.”

“We remain confident in delivering our guidance for fiscal year 2010,” he added.

Visa said it processed 10.6 billion transactions in the three months ended March 31. That was up 14% versus the same period a year earlier.

It will be interesting to see if Visa can make this growth sustainable or if this is just a cyclical gain because of the recession.