Visa
Company Information
About
The Visa Company
Visa
International is a membership association that is owned by over
21,000 banks and other financial services companies worldwide. Members
use Visa-branded products on every continent, and the global organisation
consists of six regions: Asia Pacific ( AP ); Canada; Central and
Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa ( CEMEA ); European Union
( EU ); Latin America-Caribbean ( LAC ); and United States.
Cards
are issued by their member financial institutions, not by the Visa
association. The members also sign up retailers, recruit cardholders,
set fees and determine spending limits and the interest rates on
outstanding balances.
Visa
provide the global platforms, systems and processing services needed
by their Members to run their Visa card payment businesses. Visa
play a leading role in establishing high technical standards for
global interoperability and security and in developing new technologies.
Currently,
Visa are working to ensure that payments made through the Internet
and wireless devices, such as mobile 'phones and handheld computers,
are as safe as those made in conventional retailers, such as hotels,
restaurants, etc.
The system that allows this is called VisaNet - the global computer
and telecommunications network that connects retailers, ATMs and
Visa Members. VisaNet also has the capacity to handle over 5000
transactions per second.
There
are more than one billion Visa-branded cards in use and the cards
are accepted at more than 21 million locations, including more than
645,000 cash dispensers, in 300 countries and territories
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