The company’s data processing and service units generate the most revenue
Reviewed by Akhilesh GantiReviewed by Akhilesh Ganti
Visa Inc. (V) is a digital payments brand that provides services globally to consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and governments. The company offers authorization, clearing, and settlement services for financial institutions and merchants.
Visa does not issue credit or debit cards. It provides services to the businesses which issue the cards and the consumers who use them.
Key Takeaways
- Visa is a digital payments company that facilitates transactions between consumers, merchants, banks, and other financial institutions.
- Data processing operations generate the largest portion of revenue for Visa.
- Visa’s strategy is to grow in consumer payments, new flows, and value-added services.
Visa’s Industry
Visa’s rivals include Mastercard Inc. (MA) and American Express Co. (AXP), as well as digital payments companies like PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL).
Visa reaches more than 200 countries and territories, 14,500 financial institutions, and 130 million merchant locations. The company offers services including credit, debit, prepaid, tap-to-pay, click-to-pay, and tokenization through four segments:
- Service: Provides services to support client usage of Visa’s payment services.
- Data Processing: Includes clearing, settlement, authorization, value-added, network access, and similar services.
- International Transaction Processing: Provides cross-border transaction processing and currency conversion.
- Other: Includes license fees, value-added services, account holder services, and certification.
Visa’s Financials
For its fiscal year 2023, Visa reported revenues of $32.7 billion, a gain of 11% year over year. Visa posted a loss of $12.3 billion in client incentives, paid to financial institution clients, merchants, and business partners to grow payment volume, entice new routing transactions, and drive innovation.
Service revenues contributed $14.8 billion to overall performance, Data Processing added $16 billion, and International Transactions brought in $11.6 billion. Revenue for other services like licensing fees and marketing was $2.5 billion.
History and Leadership
Ryan McInerney became chief executive officer of Visa, Inc. in February 2023.
Visa Inc. traces its origins to Bank of America’s launch of BankAmericard, the first card with a revolving credit feature, in 1958. By 1976, BankAmericard became Visa.
In 2023, Visa completed 283.2 billion transactions valued at $15.1 trillion.
Recent Developments
In 2024, Visa announced a partnership with HSBC Group to support the bank’s new international multi-currency payments app, called Zing.
In 2022, Visa acquired Tink, a Europe-based open banking platform that enables banks, financial technology companies (fintechs), and startups to develop data-driven financial services.
In 2023, Visa signed an agreement to acquire Pismo, a cloud-native issuer processing and core banking platform with operations in Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
Landmark Legal Settlement
After 20 years of litigation, Visa and the merchants who accept its card reached a settlement over the fees it charges in March 2024. The agreement lowers credit interchange rates and caps the lower rates until at least 2030.
Interchange rates, also called “swipe fees,” are the fees that merchants pay credit card companies whenever a customer uses one of its credit or debit cards.
How Does Visa Manage Cybersecurity Threats?
Visa is subject to various cybersecurity regulations and cyber incident reporting requirements across many jurisdictions. Short timeframes are mandated to report cyber incident reporting. If Visa fails to follow the rules and timeframes, the company faces monetary damages, civil and criminal penalties, litigation, and damage to its brand.
How Many Visa Cards Have Been Issued Worldwide?
As of 2024, Visa has about 4.3 billion cards worldwide.
How Many Employees Does Visa Have?
Visa employs 28,800 workers worldwide.
The Bottom Line
In 2023, Visa reported fiscal year revenues of $32.7 billion. The company’s data processing operations generate the largest proportion of its revenue. Data processing provides clearing, settlement, authorization, value-added, network access, and similar services.
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