Visa 2008 Annual Report Download - page 5

Table of Contents
PART I
ITEM 1. Business
Overview
Visa operates the world's largest retail electronic payments network and manages the world's most recognized global financial services brand. We have
more branded credit and debit cards in circulation, more transactions and greater total volume than any of our competitors. We facilitate global commerce
through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses and government entities. We provide financial
institutions, our primary customers, with product platforms encompassing consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments. VisaNet, our secure,
centralized, global processing platform, enables us to provide financial institutions and merchants with a wide range of product platforms, transaction
processing and related value-added services. Based on the size of our network, the strength of the Visa brand and the breadth and depth of our products and
services, we believe we are the leading electronic payments company in the world.
Our business primarily consists of the following:
• we own a family of well known, widely accepted payment brands, including Visa, Visa Electron, PLUS and Interlink, which we license to our
customers for use in their payment programs;
• we manage and promote our brands for the benefit of our customers through advertising, promotional and sponsorship initiatives and by
encouraging card usage and merchant acceptance;
• we offer a wide range of branded payments product platforms, which our customers use to develop and offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash
access programs for cardholders (individuals, businesses and government entities);
• we provide transaction processing services (primarily authorization, clearing and settlement) to our customers through VisaNet, our secure,
centralized, global processing platform;
• we provide various other value-added services to our customers, including risk management, debit issuer processing, loyalty services, dispute
management and value-added information services;
• we develop new products and services to enable our customers to offer efficient and effective payment methods to their cardholders and
merchants; and
• we adopt and enforce a common set of rules adhered to by our customers to ensure the efficient and secure functioning of our payments network
and the maintenance and promotion of our brands.
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