Visa 2013 Annual Report Download - page 13

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PART I
ITEM 1. Business
General Business Development
Visa Inc., which we refer to as Visa or the Company, is a global payments technology company
that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200
countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s
most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — which facilitates authorization, clearing and
settlement of payment transactions worldwide. It also offers fraud protection for account holders and
assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates
and fees for account holders on Visa-branded cards and payment products. In most cases, account
holder and merchant relationships belong to, and are managed by, our financial institution clients.
Visa Inc. was incorporated in the State of Delaware in May 2007. In October 2007, we undertook a
reorganization in which Visa U.S.A. Inc., Visa International Service Association, Visa Canada
Corporation and Inovant LLC became direct or indirect subsidiaries of Visa Inc. Visa Europe Limited
remains owned and governed by its European member financial institutions and is not a subsidiary of
Visa Inc. Visa Inc. completed its initial public offering (“IPO”) in March 2008.
Since fiscal 2010, we have completed several acquisitions to accelerate the growth of Visa’s
digital, eCommerce and mobile commerce offerings. These include: CyberSource Corporation, a
leading provider of electronic payment, risk management and payment security solutions to online
merchants; PlaySpan Inc., a leading provider of digital goods transactions in online games, digital
media and social networks; and Fundamo, a leading provider of mobile financial services for mobile
network operators and financial institutions in developing economies.
Business developments in fiscal 2013 included the following:
•Leadership. Charles W. Scharf joined the Company as Chief Executive Officer and became
a member of our board of directors on November 1, 2012. Ryan McInerney joined the
Company as President on June 3, 2013.
•Product innovation. Visa’s fundamental approach to innovation focuses on enhancing our
current product platforms, enabling more Visa transactions in every channel, and extending
the utility of our products and services to additional access points, such as eCommerce and
mobile, new merchant segments and new geographies. We continue to invest in the
development of eCommerce and mobile payment platforms, contact and contactless chip
cards and devices, card product enhancements, authentication and security technologies
and platforms, and money transfers.
In mature markets, Visa continues to expand in digital channels. V.me, Visa’s digital wallet
service and acceptance mark, is now commercially available in the United States where it is
featured on more than fifty merchant sites, and has also launched in Australia and Canada.
We have also licensed payWave, Visa’s mobile NFC payment technology, to third-party
wallet providers to help ensure their solutions are enabled with Visa’s payment functionality,
and we have signed agreements with several mobile operators to extend payment
functionality to their mobile subscribers. In addition, we continue to certify NFC-enabled
smartphones from device manufacturers for use with payWave, and we have partnered with
Samsung to preload payWave on Samsung’s NFC-enabled smartphones. To further support
the enablement of NFC, Visa also offers the Visa Mobile Provisioning service — a solution
that enables banks and mobile operators to securely provision mobile payment accounts on
NFC-enabled smartphones.
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