Visa 2010 Annual Report Download - page 6

Table of Contents
PART I
ITEM 1. Business
Overview
Visa Inc. ("Visa" or the "Company") is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, banks and governments in more
than 200 countries and territories, enabling them to use digital currency instead of cash and checks.
Our business primarily consists of the following:
• we own, manage and promote a portfolio of well-known, widely-accepted payment brands, including Visa, Visa Electron, PLUS and Interlink,
which we license to our clients for use in their payment programs;
• we offer a wide range of branded payments product platforms, which our clients, primarily financial institutions, use to develop and offer credit,
debit, prepaid and cash access programs for their customers (individuals, businesses and government entities);
• we provide transaction processing and value-added services to our clients through VisaNet, Visa Debit Processing Services and Visa Processing
Services; and
• we promote and enforce a common set of operating regulations adhered to by our clients to ensure the efficient and secure functioning of our
payments network and the maintenance and promotion of our brands.
To ensure our long-term success and the success of our clients:
• we invest in new services and processing platforms to facilitate more convenient and innovative payment methods, such as mobile payments,
money transfer and eCommerce; and
• we continually improve the security of our network and our payments services to enhance the reliability of our global processing infrastructure
and protect the security of cardholder information.
We operate an open-loop payments network, a multi-party system in which Visa connects financial institutions—issuing financial institutions (or
"issuers") that issue cards to cardholders, and acquiring financial institutions (or "acquirers") that have the banking relationship with merchants – and manage
the exchange of information and value between them. As such, Visa does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. In most instances,
cardholder and merchant relationships belong to, and are managed by, our network of financial institution clients. We derive revenues primarily from fees
paid by our clients based on payments volume, transactions that we process and other related services that we provide.
Business developments in fiscal 2010 included the following:
• CyberSource. We completed the acquisition of CyberSource Corporation in July 2010. CyberSource provides payment and risk solutions to
online businesses, expanding Visa's online payment, fraud, and security management capabilities. The combination of our businesses is expected
to accelerate growth of the eCommerce category and enhance the value of Visa's network, product and service offerings to financial institutions,
merchants, partners and consumers.
• Client Contracts. We continued to take steps to solidify our foundation for long-term growth by successfully renewing several major client
contracts throughout the year. We now have no major contracts up for renewal until the beginning of fiscal 2013.
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