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Visa® Company Profile |
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Based in San Francisco, California, Visa is known for its credit card services around the globe. The company employs more than 6,000 employees worldwide and has branches throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. In 2005, consumer purchases using Visa cards equaled $4 trillion and the number of transactions increased to over 51 billion.
Visa is divided into several companies with their own chief executive officers. Visa International has been headed by Christopher Rodrigues since 2004. Before that time, Rodrigues had been CEO for the UK-based financial services firm Bradley & Bingley. The Visa USA branch is headed by John Philip Coglan as of July 2005. Prior to that time, he was vice chairman for Charles Schwab.
Early Company History
In 1958, Bank of America started the BankAmericard program in Fresno, California. These cards came in three types: blue, white, and gold. While American Express's credit card was successfully launched in the same year, the BankAmericard is the first revolving-credit card to be accepted widely by merchants. Unlike American Express cards which required users to pay their total balance monthly, BankAmericard users had the option of making installment payments on their balance.
Just eight years after its launch, Bank of America began moving the card beyond the California border. The costs for issuing the cards were shared among all of the banks so the fees did not prevent smaller banks from joining the arrangement.
After a successful decade, a group of the banks which issued the BankAmericards was formed. As a result of this change, the banks would have a centralized system for accepting payments but would also have more individual control. Two years later – in 1970 – this group was officially incorporated as National BankAmericard Inc (NBI) and Dee Hock, who had proposed the initial idea, was named as the first president.
Three years later, NBI introduces BASE I. This global electronic card authorization system speeds up transaction times from over 5 minutes to less than a minute. It also allows card authorization to be conducted 24 hours a day. The introduction of this system makes accepting and using credit cards more convenient for merchants and for consumers.
As the popularity of the card continued to grow in the United States, NBI formed International Bankcard Company (IBANCO) in 1974 in order to expand that growth globally.
During the mid-1970's, NBI also launched BASE II which no longer required paperwork in order to complete credit card authorizations, and they began their first debit card program.
BankAmericard Becomes Visa
In 1976, NBI decided to change the BankAmericard's name to Visa. The advantage of the change was that “Visa” was pronounced the same way in all languages. However, the card is not the only aspect of the business to get a name change. NBI's name becomes Visa USA while IBANCO – NBI's international arm – becomes Visa International.
Visa continued bringing innovations and growth to the credit card market in the 1980's. After issuing Visa Premier (the company's first premium card) in 1982 and launching a global ATM network in 1983, the company introduced the first system meant to reduce credit card fraud in 1984. As a result of these changes, Visa saw the amount of credit card sales double within just three years.
The 1980's was also a time of international growth. Because Visa became the first credit card which allowed multiple-currency settlement in 1986, it became popular with international travelers. Within the next two years, Visa was expanding its network into China and Russia.
Visa's growth continued into the next decade with the introduction of Visa TravelMoney – a prepaid credit card that could be used internationally to access a designated amount of money, neural network technologies that allowed the company to spot unusual usage patterns in order to alert consumers to potential problems, and smart cards which allow users to accumulate loyalty points with merchants.
In 1997, Visa co-developed Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) 1.0 which allowed for credit cards to be securely authenticated via the Internet. That same year they began to introduce credit card terminals which did not require contact with the cards.
Before the start of the 21st century, Visa had reached a significant milestone: they were the first credit card company to process 25 billion transactions annually. In 2000, the company had 1 billion cards in circulation, another important milestone for the company.
Visa Today
Visa continues to be one of the most widely accepted and used credit cards globally. With over 24 million retailers accepting the card in more than 150 countries and more than 1 million ATMs providing users with instant cash access, Visa has established itself as an integral part of the global economy. Plus since Visa can settle transactions today in more than 160 different currencies, the card can be used almost anywhere in the world.
As of 2005, more than 1.4 billion Visa cards had been issued and their usage continues to grow annually, particularly in Internet spending. Fifty-one percent of all Internet purchases in 2005 were made using Visa credit cards.
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