A Brief History Of Visa Card Along with Amex, Diners Club and MasterCard, Visa Card is consider one of the big ‘4’ credit card issuers in the world. So, what’s the story behind the rise of this card issuer? The following is a brief history of Visa Card.
The Start
Although it sometimes feels like they have been around forever, the beginnings of the payment card system are little more than 40 years old – with the issue of the first Diners Club. Shortly thereafter, in 1958, Bank of America issued its first payment card to join the payment card foray and the story of Visa has never looked back!
A Membership Association
Although originally initiated solely by Bank of America, today the payment card is ‘owned’ by a membership association of 21,000 financial institutions around the world. So, although it is one brand name, it has a large number of members, which is why you can have the same card issued by various different financial institutions. When you consider that it was not until 1970 that a second financial institution joined the association, then I think you would agree that the organisation has undergone quite some development in the past 35 years!
Now, for the amazing fact: when you receive your card through the post you most probably think you are getting a Visa Card. Well you would be wrong! Visa does not issue cards directly to customers, it is the umbrella membership organization – the card issuer is the name of the financial institution on the card. Rather, Visa operates the consumer payment processing system (VisaNet) that each of the members signs up for.
Today
Today the organization is active in 160 countries around the world. In 2000, a remarkable $1.8 trillion in products and services were paid for in one of the 20,000,000 outlets that accept the card! This phenomenal statistic means that the system processed 3,700 transactions every second during peak hours, which accounted for 60% of the payment system market share in 2000!
The Future
Although no one would like to guess what the future holds for any business, with the remarkable growth and success that this organization has experienced in the last 30 years, and with its ever innovative ways to entice new customers to its loyal brand, it is hard to see how the future of Visa Card can be anything but a success. Moreover, with the continued success of the Internet, the days of paying for products and services with cash and checks are now forever – we have truly embarked on the plastic era!
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