Visa Inc.

- paper
This paper written by Margaret Juarez

Visa Inc. is an American multinational financial 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 is one of the
world's most valuable companies.
Visa does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers; rather, Visa
provides financial institutions with Visa-branded payment products that they then use to offer
credit, debit, prepaid and cash access programs to their customers. In 2015, the Nilson Report, a
publication that tracks the credit card industry, found that Visa's global network processed 100
billion transactions during 2014 with a total volume of US$6.8 trillion. In response to competitor
Master Charge, BofA began to license the BankAmericard program to other financial institutions
in 1966. These facilities are heavily secured against natural disasters, crime, and terrorism; can
operate independently of each other and from external utilities if necessary; and 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, after being surpassed by China
UnionPay in 2015, based on annual value of card payments transacted and number of issued
cards. However, because UnionPay's size is based primarily on the size of its domestic market in
China, Visa is still considered the dominant bankcard company in the rest of the world, where it
commands a 50% market share of total card payments. BankAmericard was the brainchild of
BofA's in-house product development think tank, the Customer Services Research Group, and its
leader, Joseph P. Williams. Williams convinced senior BofA executives in 1956 to let him pursue
what became the world's first successful mass mailing of unsolicited credit cards to a large
population.
Williams' pioneering accomplishment was that he brought about the successful implementation
of the all-purpose credit card, not in coming up with the idea. The need for a unified financial
instrument was already evident to the American financial services industry, but no one could
figure out how to do it. There were already charge cards like Diners Club, and "by the mid-
1950s, there had been at least a dozen attempts to create an all-purpose credit card." According
to Williams, Florsheim Shoes was the first major retail chain which agreed to accept
BankAmericard at its stores.
The 1958 test at first went smoothly, but then BofA panicked when it confirmed rumors that
another bank was about to initiate its own drop in San Francisco, BofA's home market. By March
1959, drops began in San Francisco and Sacramento; by June, BofA was dropping cards in Los
Angeles; by October, the entire state of California had been saturated with over 2 million credit
cards and BankAmericard was being accepted by 20,000 merchants. Both politicians and
journalists joined the general uproar against Bank of America and its newfangled credit card,
especially when it was pointed out that the cardholder agreement held customers liable for all
charges, even those resulting from fraud. BofA officially lost over $8.8 million on the launch of
BankAmericard, but when the full cost of advertising and overhead was included, the bank's
actual loss was probably around $20 million. They conducted a "massive effort" to clean up after
Williams, imposed proper financial controls, published an open letter to 3 million households
across the state apologizing for the credit card fraud and other issues their card raised and
eventually were able to make the new financial instrument work. At the time, BofA deliberately
kept this information secret and allowed then-widespread negative impressions to linger in
order to ward off competition. This strategy worked until 1966, when BankAmericard's
profitability had become far too big to hide. The "drops" of unsolicited credit cards continued
unabated, thanks to BofA and its licensees and competitors until they were outlawed in 1970,
but not before over 100 million credit cards had been distributed into the American population.
During the late 1960s, BofA also licensed the BankAmericard program to banks in several other
countries, which began issuing cards with localized brand names. For example:
In Canada, an alliance of banks issued credit cards under the Chargex name from 1968 to 1977.
In France, it was known as Carte Bleue. The logo still appears on many French-issued Visa cards
today.
In Japan, The Sumitomo Bank issued BankAmericards through the Sumitomo Credit Service.
In the UK, the only BankAmericard issuer for some years was Barclaycard. The branding still
exists today, but is used not only on Visa cards issued by Barclays, but on its MasterCard and
American Express cards as well.
In Spain until 1979 the only issuer was Banco de Bilbao.
In 1968, a manager at the National Bank of Commerce, Dee Hock, was asked to supervise that
bank's launch of its own licensed version of BankAmericard in the Pacific Northwest market.
Although Bank of America had cultivated the public image that BankAmericard's troubled
startup issues were now safely in the past, Hock realized that the BankAmericard licensee
program itself was in terrible disarray because it had developed and grown very rapidly in an ad
hoc fashion. For example, "interchange" transaction issues between banks were becoming a
very serious problem, which had not been seen before when Bank of America was the sole
issuer of BankAmericards. Hock suggested to other licensees that they form a committee to
investigate and analyze the various problems with the licensee program; they promptly made
him the chair of that committee.
After lengthy negotiations, the committee led by Hock was able to persuade Bank of America
that a bright future lay ahead for BankAmericard — outside Bank of America. In June 1970, Bank
of America gave up control of the BankAmericard program. The various BankAmericard issuer
banks took control of the program, creating National BankAmericard Inc., an independent
Delaware corporation which would be in charge of managing, promoting and developing the
BankAmericard system within the United States. In other words, BankAmericard was
transformed from a franchising system into a jointly controlled consortium or alliance, like its
competitor Master Charge. Hock became NBI's first president and CEO.
However, Bank of America retained the right to directly license BankAmericard to banks outside
the United States and continued to issue and support such licenses. By 1972, licenses had been
granted in 15 countries. The international licensees soon encountered a variety of problems
with their licensing programs, and they hired Hock as a consultant to help them restructure their
relationship with BofA as he had done for the domestic licensees. As a result, in 1974, the
International Bankcard Company, a multinational member corporation, was founded in order to
manage the international BankAmericard program.
In 1976, the directors of IBANCO determined that bringing the various international networks
together into a single network with a single name internationally would be in the best interests
of the corporation; however, in many countries, there was still great reluctance to issue a card
associated with Bank of America, even though the association was entirely nominal in nature.
For this reason, in 1976, BankAmericard, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, Chargex, Sumitomo Card, and
all other licensees united under the new name, "Visa", which retained the distinctive blue, white
and gold flag. NBI became Visa USA and IBANCO became Visa International.
The term Visa was conceived by the company's founder, Dee Hock. He believed that the word
was instantly recognizable in many languages in many countries and that it also denoted
universal acceptance.
In October 2007, Bank of America announced it was resurrecting the BankAmericard brand
name as the "BankAmericard Rewards Visa".
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, in March 2022, Visa announced that it would
suspend all business operations in Russia.
Corporate structure
Prior to October 3, 2007, Visa comprised four non-stock, separately incorporated companies
that employed 6,000 people worldwide: the worldwide parent entity Visa International Service
Association, Visa USA Inc., Visa Canada Association, and Visa Europe Ltd. The latter three
separately incorporated regions had the status of group members of Visa International Service
Association.
The unincorporated regions Visa Latin America, Visa Asia Pacific and Visa Central and Eastern
Europe, Middle East and Africa were divisions within Visa.
Billing and finance charge methods
Initially, signed copies of sales drafts were included in each customer's monthly billing statement
for verification purposes—an industry practice known as "country club billing". By the late
1970s, however, billing statements no longer contained these enclosures, but rather a summary
statement showing posting date, purchase date, reference number, merchant name, and the
dollar amount of each purchase. At the same time, many issuers, particularly Bank of America,
were in the process of changing their methods of finance charge calculation. Initially, a "previous
balance" method was used—calculation of finance charge on the unpaid balance shown on the
prior month's statement. Later, it was decided to use "average daily balance" which resulted in
increased revenue for the issuers by calculating the number of days each purchase was included
on the prior month's statement. Several years later, "new average daily balance"—in which
transactions from previous and current billing cycles were used in the calculation—was
introduced. By the early 1980s, many issuers introduced the concept of the annual fee as yet
another revenue enhancer.
IPO and restructuring
On October 11, 2006, Visa announced that some of its businesses would be merged and become
a publicly traded company, Visa Inc.
Under the IPO restructuring, Visa Canada, Visa International, and Visa USA were merged into the
new public company. Visa's Western Europe operation became a separate company, owned by
its member banks who will also have a minority stake in Visa Inc. In total, more than 35
investment banks participated in the deal in several capacities, most notably as underwriters.
On October 3, 2007, Visa completed its corporate restructuring with the formation of Visa Inc.
The new company was the first step towards Visa's IPO. The second step came on November 9,
2007, when the new Visa Inc. submitted its $10 billion IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission. On February 25, 2008, Visa announced it would go ahead with an IPO of
half its shares. The IPO took place on March 18, 2008. Visa sold 406 million shares at US$44 per
share, raising US$17.9 billion in what was then the largest initial public offering in U.S. history.
On March 20, 2008, the IPO underwriters exercised their overallotment option, purchasing an
additional 40.6 million shares, bringing Visa's total IPO share count to 446.6 million, and bringing
the total proceeds to US$19.1 billion. Visa now trades under the ticker symbol "V" on the New
York Stock Exchange.
Visa Europe
Visa Europe Ltd. was a membership association and cooperative of over 3,700 European banks
and other payment service providers that operated Visa branded products and services within
Europe. Visa Europe was a company entirely separate from Visa Inc. having gained
independence of Visa International Service Association in October 2007 when Visa Inc. became a
publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. Visa Inc. announced the plan to
acquire Visa Europe on November 5, 2015, creating a single global company. On April 21, 2016,
the agreement was amended in response to the feedback of European Commission. The
acquisition of Visa Europe was completed on June 21, 2016.
Acquisition of Plaid
On January 13, 2020, Plaid announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to be acquired
by Visa for $5.3 billion. The deal was double the company's most recent Series C round valuation
of $2.65 billion, and was expected to close in the next 3–6 months, subject to regulatory review
and closing conditions. According to the deal, Visa would pay $4.9 billion in cash and
approximately $400 million of retention equity and deferred equity, according to a presentation
deck prepared by Visa.
On November 5, 2020, the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit seeking to block
the acquisition, arguing that Visa is a monopolist trying to eliminate a competitive threat by
purchasing Plaid. Visa said it disagrees with the lawsuit and "intends to defend the transaction
vigorously."
Digital currencies
On February 3, 2021, Visa announced a partnership with First Boulevard, a neobank focused on
building generational wealth for Black Americans. The partnership would allow their users to
buy, sell, hold, and trade digital assets through Anchorage Digital.
On March 29, 2021, Visa announced the acceptance of stable coin USDC to settle transactions
on its network.
Visa Foundation
Registered in the United States as a 501 entity, the Visa Foundation was created with the
mission of supporting inclusive economies. In particular, economies in which individuals,
businesses and communities can thrive with the support of grants and investments. Supporting
resiliency, as well as the growth, of micro and small businesses that benefit women is a priority
of the Visa Foundation. Furthermore, the Foundation prioritizes providing support to the
community from a broad standpoint, as well as responding to disasters during crisis.
Other initiatives
In December 2020, Visa Announced the launch of a new accelerator program across Asia Pacific
to further develop the region's financial technology ecosystem. The accelerator program aims to
find and partner with startup companies providing financial and payments technologies that
could potentially leverage on Visa's network of bank and merchant partners in the region.
Finance
For the fiscal year 2018, Visa reported earnings of US$10.3 billion, with an annual revenue of
US$20.61 billion, an increase of 12.3% over the previous fiscal cycle. Visa's shares traded at over
$143 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$280.2 billion in September
2018. As of 2018, the company ranked 161st on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States
corporations by revenue.
Criticism and controversy
WikiLeaks
Visa Europe began suspending payments to WikiLeaks on December 7, 2010. The company said
it was awaiting an investigation into 'the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa
operating rules' – though it did not go into details. In return DataCell, the IT company that
enables WikiLeaks to accept credit and debit card donations, announced that it would take legal
action against Visa Europe. On December 8, the group Anonymous performed a DDoS attack on
visa.com, bringing the site down. Although the Norway-based financial services company Teller
AS, which Visa ordered to look into WikiLeaks and its fundraising body, the Sunshine Press,
found no proof of any wrongdoing, Salon reported in January 2011 that Visa Europe "would
continue blocking donations to the secret-spilling site until it completes its own investigation".
In July 2012, the Reykjavík District Court decided that Valitor was violating the law when it
prevented donations to the site by credit card. It was ruled that the donations be allowed to
return to the site within 14 days or they would be fined in the amount of US$6,000 per day.
Litigation and regulatory actions
Anti-competitive conduct in Australia
In 2015, the Australian Federal Court ordered Visa to pay a pecuniary penalty of $20 million for
engaging in anti-competitive conduct against dynamic currency conversion operators, in
proceedings brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Antitrust lawsuit by ATM operators
In 2011, MasterCard and Visa were sued in a class action by ATM operators claiming the credit
card networks' rules effectively fix ATM access fees. The suit claimed that this is a restraint on
trade in violation of US federal law. The lawsuit was filed by the National ATM Council and
independent operators of automated teller machines. More specifically, it is alleged that
MasterCard's and Visa's network rules prohibit ATM operators from offering lower prices for
transactions over PIN-debit networks that are not affiliated with Visa or MasterCard. The suit
says that this price-fixing artificially raises the price that consumers pay using ATMs, limits the
revenue that ATM-operators earn, and violates the Sherman Act's prohibition against
unreasonable restraints of trade.
Johnathan Rubin, an attorney for the plaintiffs said, "Visa and MasterCard are the ringleaders,
organizers, and enforcers of a conspiracy among U.S. banks to fix the price of ATM access fees in
order to keep the competition at bay."
In 2017, a US district court denied the ATM operators' request to stop Visa from enforcing the
ATM fees.
Debit card swipe fees
In 1996, a class of U.S. merchants, including Walmart, brought an antitrust lawsuit against Visa
and MasterCard over their "Honor All Cards" policy, which forced merchants who accepted Visa
and MasterCard branded credit cards to also accept their respective debit cards. Over 4 million
class members were represented by the plaintiffs. According to a website associated with the
suit, Visa and MasterCard settled the plaintiffs' claims in 2003 for a total of $3.05 billion. Visa's
share of this settlement is reported to have been the larger.
U.S. Justice Department actions
In 1998, the Department of Justice sued Visa over rules prohibiting its issuing banks from doing
business with American Express and Discover. The Department of Justice won its case at trial in
2001 and the verdict was upheld on appeal. American Express and Discover filed suit as well.
In October 2010, Visa and MasterCard reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in
another antitrust case. The companies agreed to allow merchants displaying their logos to
decline certain types of cards, or to offer consumers discounts for using cheaper cards.
Antitrust issues in Europe
In 2002, the European Commission exempted Visa's multilateral interchange fees from Article 81
of the EC Treaty that prohibits anti-competitive arrangements. However, this exemption expired
on December 31, 2007. In the United Kingdom, Mastercard has reduced its interchange fees
while it is under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading.
In January 2007, the European Commission issued the results of a two-year inquiry into the
retail banking sector. The report focuses on payment cards and interchange fees. Upon
publishing the report, Commissioner Neelie Kroes said the "present level of interchange fees in
many of the schemes we have examined does not seem justified." The report called for further
study of the issue.
On March 26, 2008, the European Commission opened an investigation into Visa's multilateral
interchange fees for cross-border transactions within the EEA as well as into the "Honor All
Cards" rule.
The antitrust authorities of EU member states also investigated Mastercard's and Visa's
interchange fees. For example, on January 4, 2007, the Polish Office of Competition and
Consumer Protection fined twenty banks a total of PLN 164 million for jointly setting
Mastercard's and Visa's interchange fees.
In December 2010, Visa reached a settlement with the European Union in yet another antitrust
case, promising to reduce debit card payments to 0.2 percent of a purchase. A senior official
from the European Central Bank called for a break-up of the Visa/Mastercard duopoly by
creation of a new European debit card for use in the Single Euro Payments Area. After Visa's
blocking of payments to WikiLeaks, members of the European Parliament expressed concern
that payments from European citizens to a European corporation could apparently be blocked
by the US, and called for a further reduction in the dominance of Visa and Mastercard in the
European payment system.
Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation
On November 27, 2012, a federal judge entered an order granting preliminary approval to a
proposed settlement to a class-action lawsuit filed in 2005 by merchants and trade associations
against Mastercard and Visa. The suit was filed due to alleged price-fixing practices employed by
Mastercard and Visa. About one-quarter of the named class plaintiffs have decided to opt "out
of the settlement". Opponents object to provisions that would bar future lawsuits and even
prevent merchants from opting out of significant portions of the proposed settlement.
Plaintiffs allege that Visa and Mastercard fixed interchange fees, also known as swipe fees, that
are charged to merchants for the privilege of accepting payment cards. In their complaint, the
plaintiffs also alleged that the defendants unfairly interfere with merchants from encouraging
customers to use less expensive forms of payment such as lower-cost cards, cash, and checks.
High swipe fees in Poland
Very high interchange fee for Visa in Poland started discussion about legality and need for
government regulations of interchange fees to avoid high costs for business. This situation also
led to the birth of new methods of payment in the year 2013, which avoid the need for go-
between companies like Visa or Mastercard, for example mobile application issued by major
banks, and system by big chain of discount shops, or older public transport tickets buying
systems.
Confrontation with Walmart over high fees
In June 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart threatened to stop accepting Visa
cards in Canada. Visa objected saying that consumers should not be dragged into a dispute
between the companies. In January 2017, Walmart Canada and Visa reached a deal to allow the
continued acceptance of Visa.
Dispute with Kroger over high credit card fees
In March 2019, U.S. retailer Kroger announced that its 250-strong Smith's chain would stop
accepting Visa credit cards as of April 3, 2019, due to the cards’ high ‘swipe’ fees. Kroger's
California-based Foods Co stores stopped accepting Visa cards in August 2018. Mike Schlotman,
Kroger's executive vice president/chief financial officer, said Visa had been “misusing its position
and charging retailers excessive fees for a long time.” In response, Visa issued a statement
saying it was “unfair and disappointing that Kroger is putting shoppers in the middle of a
business dispute.” As of October 31, 2019, Kroger has settled their dispute with Visa and is now
accepting the payment method.
Antitrust investigation over debit card practices
In March 2021, the United States Justice Department announced its investigation with Visa to
discover if the company is engaging in anticompetitive practices in the debit card market. The
main question at hand is whether or not Visa is limiting merchants' ability to route debit card
transactions over card networks that are often less expensive, focusing more so on online debit
card transactions. The probe highlights the role of network fees, which are invisible to
consumers and place pressure on merchants, who mitigate the fees by raising prices of goods
for customers. The probe was confirmed through a regulatory filing on March 19, 2021, stating
they will be cooperating with the Justice Department. Visa's shares fell more than 6% following
the announcement.
Corporate affairs
Headquarters
In 2009, Visa moved its corporate headquarters back to San Francisco when it leased the top
three floors of the 595 Market Street office building, although most of its employees remained
at its Foster City campus. In 2012, Visa decided to consolidate its headquarters in Foster City
where 3,100 of its 7,700 global workers are employed. Visa owns four buildings at the
intersection of Metro Center Boulevard and Vintage Park Drive.
As of October 1, 2012, Visa's headquarters are located in Foster City, California. Around 1993,
Visa began consolidating various scattered offices in San Mateo to a location in Foster City. By
2019, Visa leased space in four buildings near Austin and employed nearly 2,000 people.
On November 6, 2019, Visa announced plans to move its headquarters back to San Francisco by
2024 upon completion of a new "13-story, 300,000-square-foot building".
Operations
Visa offers through its issuing members the following types of cards:
Debit cards
Credit cards
Prepaid cards
Visa operates the Plus automated teller machine network and the Interlink EFTPOS point-of-sale
network, which facilitate the "debit" protocol used with debit cards and prepaid cards. They also
provide commercial payment solutions for small businesses, midsize and large corporations, and
governments.
Visa teamed with Apple in September 2014, to incorporate a new mobile wallet feature into
Apple's new iPhone models, enabling users to more readily use their Visa, and other credit/debit
cards.
Operating regulations
Visa has a set of rules that govern the participation of financial institutions in its payment
system. Acquiring banks are responsible for ensuring that their merchants comply with the
rules.
Rules address how a cardholder must be identified for security, how transactions may be denied
by the bank, and how banks may cooperate for fraud prevention, and how to keep that
identification and fraud protection standard and non-discriminatory. Other rules govern what
creates an enforceable proof of authorization by the cardholder.
The rules prohibit merchants from imposing a minimum or maximum purchase amount in order
to accept a Visa card and from charging cardholders a fee for using a Visa card. Some countries
have banned the no-surcharge rule, most notably in Australia retailers may apply surcharges to
any credit-card transaction, Visa or otherwise. In the UK the law was changed in January 2018 to
prevent retailers from adding a surcharge to a transaction as per ''.
Visa permits merchants to ask for photo ID, although the merchant rule book states that this
practice is discouraged. As long as the Visa card is signed, a merchant may not deny a
transaction because a cardholder refuses to show a photo ID.
Recent complications include the addition of exceptions for non-signed purchases by telephone
or on the Internet and an additional security system called "Verified by Visa" for purchases on
the Internet.
In September 2014, Visa Inc, launched a new service to replace account information on plastic
cards with "token" – a digital account number.
Products
Visa Credit Cards
Depending on the geographical location, Visa card issuer issue the following tiers of cards, from
the lowest to the highest:
Traditional/Classic/Standard
Gold
Platinum
Signature
Infinite
Infinite Privilege
Visa Debit
This is the standard Visa-branded debit card.
Visa Electron
A Visa-branded debit card issued worldwide since the 1990s. Its distinguishing feature is that it
does not allow "card not present" transactions while its floor limit is set to zero, which triggers
automatic authorisation of each transaction with the issuing bank and effectively makes it
impossible for the user to overdraw the account. The card has often been issued to younger
customers or those who may pose a risk of overdrawing the account. Since mid-2000s, the card
has mostly been replaced by Visa Debit.
Visa Cash
A Visa-branded stored-value card.
Visa Contactless
In September 2007, Visa introduced Visa payWave, a contactless payment technology feature
that allows cardholders to wave their card in front of contactless payment terminals without the
need to physically swipe or insert the card into a point-of-sale device. This is similar to the
Mastercard Contactless service and the American Express ExpressPay, with both using RFID
technology. All three use the same symbol as shown on the right.
In Europe, Visa has introduced the V Pay card, which is a chip-only and PIN-only debit card. In
Australia, take up has been the highest in the world, with more than 50% of in store Visa
transactions now made via Visa payWave.
mVisa
mVisa is a mobile payment app allowing payment via smartphones using QR code. This QR code
payment method was first introduced in India in 2015. It was later expanded to a number of
other countries, including in Africa and South East Asia.
Visa Checkout
In 2013, Visa launched Visa Checkout, an online payment system that removes the need to
share card details with retailers. The Visa Checkout service allows users to enter all their
personal details and card information, then use a single username and password to make
purchases from online retailers. The service works with Visa credit, debit, and prepaid cards. On
November 27, 2013, V.me went live in the UK, France, Spain and Poland, with Nationwide
Building Society being the first financial institution in Britain to support it, although Nationwide
subsequently withdrew this service in 2016.
Trademark and design
Logo design
The blue and gold in Visa's logo were chosen to represent the blue sky and gold-colored hills of
California, where the Bank of America was founded.
In 2005, Visa changed its logo, removing the horizontal stripes in favor of a simple white
background with the name Visa in blue with an orange flick on the 'V'. The orange flick was
removed in favor of the logo being a solid blue gradient in 2014. In 2015, the gold and blue
stripes were restored as card branding on Visa Debit and Visa Electron, although not as the
company's logotype.
Card design
In 1984, most Visa cards around the world began to feature a hologram of a dove on its face,
generally under the last four digits of the Visa number. This was implemented as a security
feature – true holograms would appear three-dimensional and the image would change as the
card was turned. At the same time, the Visa logo, which had previously covered the whole card
face, was reduced in size to a strip on the card's right incorporating the hologram. This allowed
issuing banks to customize the appearance of the card. Similar changes were implemented with
MasterCard cards. Today, cards may be co-branded with various merchants, airlines, etc., and
marketed as "reward cards".
On older Visa cards, holding the face of the card under an ultraviolet light will reveal the dove
picture, dubbed the Ultra-Sensitive Dove, as an additional security test.
Beginning in 2005, the Visa standard was changed to allow for the hologram to be placed on the
back of the card, or to be replaced with a holographic magnetic stripe. The HoloMag card was
shown to occasionally cause interference with card readers, so Visa eventually withdrew designs
of HoloMag cards and reverted to traditional magnetic strips.
Signatures
Visa made a statement on January 12, 2018, that the signature requirement would become
optional for all EMV contact or contactless chip-enabled merchants in North America starting in
April 2018. It was noted that the signatures are no longer necessary to fight fraud and the fraud
capabilities have advanced allowing this elimination leading to a faster in-store purchase
experience. Visa was the last of the major credit card issuers to relax the signature
requirements. The first to eliminate the signature was MasterCard Inc. followed by Discover
Financial Services and American Express Co.
Sponsorships
Olympics and Paralympics
Visa has been a worldwide sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1986 and the International
Paralympic Committee since 2002. Visa is the only card accepted at all Olympic and Paralympic
venues. Its current contract with the International Olympic Committee and International
Paralympic Committee as the exclusive services sponsor will continue through 2032 and 2020
respectively. This includes the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, London 2012 Olympic
Games, the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, the
2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
In 2002, Visa became the first global sponsor of the IPC. Visa extended its partnership with the
International Paralympic Committee through 2020, which includes the 2010 Vancouver
Paralympic Winter Games, the 2012 London Paralympic Games, 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games,
2018 Pyeongchang Paralympic Games and 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Others
Visa was the jersey sponsor of Argentina's national basketball team at the 2015 FIBA Americas
Championship in Mexico City.
Visa is the shirt sponsor for the Argentina national rugby union team, nicknamed the Pumas.
Also, Visa sponsors the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana, the most important
football club tournaments in South America.
Since 1995, Visa has sponsored the U.S. National Football League and a number of NFL teams,
including the San Francisco 49ers whose practice jerseys display the Visa logo. Visa's
sponsorship of the NFL extended through the 2014 season.
Until 2005, Visa was the exclusive sponsor of the Triple Crown thoroughbred tournament.
Visa sponsored the Rugby World Cup first from the 1995 Rugby World Cup was held in South
Africa until 12 years later, when the 2007 Rugby World Cup, was held in France.
In 2007, Visa became the sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The FIFA
partnership provides Visa with global rights to a broad range of FIFA activities – including both
the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup.
Starting from the 2012 season, Visa became a partner of the Caterham F1 Team. Visa is also
known for motorsport sponsorship in the past: it sponsored PacWest Racing's IndyCar team in
1995 and 1996, with drivers Danny Sullivan and Mark Blundell respectively.
Visa is currently a jersey sponsor of professional gaming team SK Gaming for 2017
Visa is the main sponsor of the Argentine Hockey Confederation. The Visa logo is present on
both the men's and women's playing kits.
See also
RuPay
UnionPay
CIBIL
Damage waiver
Entrust Bankcard
Visa Buxx
Visa Debit
Visa Electron
References
External links