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Background

The corporation that is behind the brand Visa and the means of payment connected to it, including the credit card known as Visa, is a huge American company. Visa was set up in 1958, which is about 65 years ago, and has since then established itself as a large international brand. Originally, the program that is now known as Visa was called BankAmericard and was the credit card program of the Bank of America. During the 1950s, the average middle-class American household was carrying a number of different charge accounts that were linked to particular retailers and for that reason, they had to maintain accounts with several different banks.

At this point, several banks already had the same idea and wanted to carry out the same thing, but none had yet succeeded. The card that was closest to the goal at this stage was the Diners Club. The disadvantage of that card was that users always had to pay the entire invoice at the end of the month; there was no possibility of installment payment. However, Joseph P. Williams, who worked as head of the Customer Services Research Group at Bank of America, was successful in developing this product.

First test of what would become the Visa Card

Following a meticulous study of individual retail chains that boasted successful credit cards, Williams and his team had constructed a card that they believed would also succeed. To test the card's effectiveness, they dispatched it to 65,000 homes in a city called Fresco. This was done without any prior notification to the residents. Fresco was deemed an appropriate choice for the test; it was substantial enough to yield significant results but also small enough to allow the testing team to exert a reasonable amount of control over the proceedings.

Continued in the 1960s

The initial Test occurred in 1958 and was deemed highly successful. Yet, it became clear that a competing bank was on the verge of introducing its own card, which caused Bank of America some understandable anxiety. Still, things were progressing quite well for BankAmericard, which was now being accepted by some 20,000 different merchants.

At the same time, though, big troubles started to crop up. Williams had never before worked in a bank's loan department, and he turned out to be a bit too credulous. The big surprise was this: 22 percent of the credit cards, not the 4 percent we thought, were illegal and had been used to do some big, bad stuff. And the really bad surprise was this: the 22 percent had led and would lead to some gigantic losses.

Williams and his team, however, exited what was then perceived to be a sinking ship. Yet, Bank of America poured considerable resources into the endeavor and, against all odds, salvaged the company.

BankAmericard becomes Visa

In 1970, the name Visa was registered. However, it was only in 1976 that the Visa Card was presented to the public. Throughout the 1970s, Bank of America had some ups and downs but ultimately managed to establish itself in the American marketplace. By 1972, it had been expanded into as many as 15 different countries but had not yet found success across the international marketplace. Why was this? There were several reasons, one of which was poor infrastructure. At this point in time, there were too many similar networks that existed in different countries, and this—along with some other issues—made it difficult for Visa to break into the international marketplace.

As a result, in 1976, BankAmericard, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, Chargex, Sumitomo Card, and others united and formed a single network, which came to be called Visa.

The Name Visa

The name Visa did not really have much of a backstory. It was created by the company's founder, Dee Hock, who believed that the name would be recognizable in many parts of the world and that it signified global acceptance.

View the present

Today, Visa is a huge international company. They had revenues of $29,310 million in 2022, and they count 26,500 employees around the world. They've been headquartered in Foster City, California, since 2012, but they announced in 2019 that they plan to move the headquarters back to San Francisco by 2025.

The number of users who possess a Visa card worldwide is not precisely known. But according to 2021 data from Visa Inc., there were over 4 million debit cards in circulation that year. Furthermore, that same year saw more than 150 million payments made with Visa debit cards. This number includes payments made using Visa's "spririt" payment solutions.