VISA Inc.

While the Visa Global Privacy Programme safeguards all the information that we collect and use, some Visa products and platforms have their own privacy notices. These notices reflect the business-specific requirements that apply. Please read the priv ific requirements that apply. Please read the privacy notices published on our sites and platforms when you sign up. Visa Inc. is headquartered in Foster City, California. They are a multinational financial services corporation focused on electronic payments. Their operations involve processing transactions through Visa-branded credit, debit, and prepaid cards. Visa Inc. is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards. Visa does not issue cards, extend credit, or set rates and fees for consumers; instead, it provides financial institutions with Visa-branded payment products. These institutions then offer credit, debit, prepaid, and cash access programs to their customers. In 2015, the Nilson Report, which tracks the credit card industry, reported that Visa's global network (VisaNet) processed 100 billion transactions in 2014, with a total volume of $6.8 trillion. Visa was founded in 1958 by Bank of America as the BankAmericard credit card program. In response to its competitor Master Charge (now Mastercard), Bank of America began licensing the BankAmericard program to other financial institutions in 1966. By 1970, Bank of America relinquished direct control of the program, forming a cooperative with the participating banks to oversee its management. The program was renamed Visa in 1976. Nearly all Visa transactions are processed through the company’s own network, VisaNet, operated from four secure data centers located in Ashburn, Virginia; Highlands Ranch, Colorado; London, England; and Singapore. These centers are highly secured against natural disasters, crime, and terrorism. They are capable of operating independently of each other and external utilities if needed. VisaNet can handle up to 30,000 simultaneous transactions and up to 100 billion computations every second. Visa is the world’s second-largest card payment organization by volume of card payments and number of issued cards, following China UnionPay, which surpassed Visa in 2015. However, UnionPay’s dominance is primarily within China’s domestic market. Globally, Visa still holds a commanding presence, controlling around 50% of the international card payment market. On September 18, 1958, Bank of America officially launched its BankAmericard credit card program in Fresno, California. In preparation for the launch, the bank distributed 65,000 unsolicited working credit cards via mail to local residents—a bold move at the time. This initiative was the work of Joseph P. Williams, head of BofA’s Customer Services Research Group, who had spent years studying previous failed credit card programs and successful revolving credit systems at companies like Sears and Mobil Oil. His team chose Fresno due to its ideal population size (around 250,000), BofA’s 45% market share there, and the city’s geographic isolation, which helped limit potential public relations fallout in case the program failed. The first major retailer to accept BankAmericard was Florsheim Shoes. Williams’ accomplishment lay not in inventing the credit card concept but in executing a workable mass-market version of it. Prior to BankAmericard, several banks had attempted to create an all-purpose credit card, but all had failed due to limited resources or flawed models. Williams’ launch marked the beginning of what would become Visa, one of the most widely recognized and trusted financial service brands worldwide. ...view more