What is a VISA (credit card)
Visa is a brand of credit card and debit card operated by the Visa International Service Association of San Francisco, California, USA, an economic joint venture of 21,000 financial institutions that issue and market Visa products.
The Visa card was launched in 1976 and the card was derived from the earlier BankAmericard issued by the Bank of America. Internationally, BankAmericard was known by other names prior to the introduction of the Visa brand for the network. The blue-white-gold motif used by BankAmericard was also used for these cards.
In Canada, an alliance of banks (including Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada, and Bank of Nova Scotia) issued credit cards under the Chargex name.
In France, it was known as Carte Bleue (Blue Card). The logo still appears on many French-issued VISA cards today.
In the UK, the only BankAmericard issuer for some years was Barclaycard.
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. Nowadays, the term VISA has become a recursive backronym for Visa International Service Association.
Visa is a brand of credit card and debit card operated by the Visa International Service Association of San Francisco, California, USA, an economic joint venture of 21,000 financial institutions that issue and market Visa products.
The Visa card was launched in 1976 and the card was derived from the earlier BankAmericard issued by the Bank of America. Internationally, BankAmericard was known by other names prior to the introduction of the Visa brand for the network. The blue-white-gold motif used by BankAmericard was also used for these cards.
In Canada, an alliance of banks (including Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada, and Bank of Nova Scotia) issued credit cards under the Chargex name.
In France, it was known as Carte Bleue (Blue Card). The logo still appears on many French-issued VISA cards today.
In the UK, the only BankAmericard issuer for some years was Barclaycard.
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. Nowadays, the term VISA has become a recursive backronym for Visa International Service Association.
