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 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 the United Kingdom, it was known as the BarclayCard, issued by Barclay's Bank. 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).

VISA operates the Plus ATM Network.

Logo

The blue and gold in VISA's logo were originally chosen to represent the blue sky and golden-colored hills of California, where Bank of America was founded.

Issuers

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is the world's largest issuer of the Visa card, before that Bank One was the largest issuer.

Olympic sponsorship

Since the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games, as a worldwide Olympic partner, Visa is the only form of electronic payment accepted at all venues and Olympic-related transactions. Its current contract with the IOC as the exclusive payment card will continue through 2012.

Legal proceedings

VISA lost a lawsuit to Wal-Mart totaling $8 billion. As of the spring of 2005, it is expected to have raised its interchange rate from 1.634% to 1.99%, which can be expected to affect the discount rates paid by retail locations to the banks with which they deal.