UPDATE 1-Brazil's Redecard Q3 profit up 18 percent

* Redecard Q3 profit up 18 pct from year-ago

* Revenues rose 17 pct to 615 mln reais (Adds details, background)

SAO PAULO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Redecard (RDCD3.SA), Brazil's second-largest credit card processing company, said on Thursday third-quarter profit rose 18 percent on greater revenue from credit card sales and services as well as lower operating expenses.

Net income rose to 333 million reais ($193 million) from 282 million reais a year earlier, while revenues rose 17 percent to 615 million reais compared to 525 million reais the year earlier, the company said in a securities filing.

Redecard benefited from a 15 percent increase in card transactions and a 22 percent jump in revenues from point-of-sale terminals.

Costs fell 0.2 percent to 122 million reais, which the company attributed to restructuring of operations, gains in scale and lower prices through renegotiations with suppliers.

Redecard, controlled by Latin America's largest bank by assets Itau Unibanco (ITUB4.SA), competes with VisaNetVNET3.SA in processing, clearing and settling transactions in Brazil's $200 billion a year credit card market.

Redecard shares fell 0.4 percent to close at 29.09 reais on Thursday. The stock has gained about 22.4 percent so far in 2009, compared with a 76 percent surge in the benchmark Bovespa index .BVSP.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Guillermo Parra-Bernal, Writing by Elzio Barreto; editing by Gunna Dickson)