15Things You Didn't Know About Visa

Fifteen things you didn't know about visa. Today we'll be taking a deeper look at visa, one of the largest card paying organizations worldwide. Visa Inc is a multinational financial services corporation based in the United States. Its headquarters is located in Foster City California and they facilitate the transfer of electronic funds throughout the globe with their debit and credit cards.

 The idea behind visa dates back to the Year 1958 after the Bank of America launched the credit card program that was initially referred to as BankAmericcard .The card was a brainchild of think-tank which was primarily comprised of the bank's in-house customer service research group headed by joseph Williams. At the time the card rapidly grew in popularity and to add on to its success Bank of America began signing licensing agreements with various banking groups from outside of California. 

This marked the beginning of a revolution within the banking industry as the funds transfer method became more popular nationally and later globally. However, it was only in 1976 that the term visa was coined as it replaced BankAmericard on their cards. Today, the brand is one of the leading organizations when it comes to the transfer of funds between banks and merchants. It would be difficult to find a single consumer anywhere in the globe that does not at least recognize the visa brand. Most people know visa as the emblem that is emblazoned across most financial plastic cards.

The 15 things you didn't know about Visa

1.    Visa is not the largest card paying organization. Contrary to popular belief, visa is not the biggest card payment organization in the world. With both credit and debit cards combined, visa currently lies at number two after was, surpassed by Chinese brand Union pay in 2015. When it was announced that Union pay issues a higher number of cards and facilitates a higher annual value of payment transactions. However, it's important to note that visa is still the most dominant worldwide since Union pays size is primarily based on the size of its domestic market over 50% of the global market share - China belongs to Visa.

2.   Visa used an unprecedented advertising method called the drop.  After it's launched in 1958 visa which was at the time known as BankAmericacard literally forced itself on the general public through what is today referred to as the drop. Basically, Bank of America decided to do a mass mailing of over 60,000 unsolicited credit cards. With the aim of reaching the public the cards, were actually functional with a limit of three hundred dollars and not mere applications although the mail was unsolicited. The strategy worked out since it eventually led to the brand's growth today. The drop is considered the world's first successful mass mailing of unsolicited credit cards.

3.   Poland has the highest visa swipe fees for every transaction. In Poland, the interchange fee goes up to 1.6 percent of the final price and this is inclusive of the v80. This led to discussions about the legality of such exorbitant rates as well as the need for government to intervene in order to avoid the high cost of business. Alternative means of payment were introduced that did not necessarily require the intervention of middlemen such as MasterCard or Visa.

4.   Card certification value. There is a three-digit code present at the back of every visa card. Most people tend to ignore this code but it's by far the most important part of that card. The code is generated with the purpose of authenticating any transaction carried out by the use of the card. Without it, no transaction could be carried out by means of either credit or debit and the CVV number is unique to each and every card.

5.   They facilitate 100 billion transactions per year. As of 2015, visa net which is visas global network was ranked as one of the most valuable networks in the world. Research conducted under the Nielsen report details a high grossing business network with over 100 billion transactions per year all of which totaled a whopping six point eight trillion dollars. Moreover, visa as a brand has been ranked as one of the highest earners in the global financial industry with over thirteen billion dollars in revenue in 2015 and a net income of 6.3 billion in the same year.

6.   Their data centers can handle 100 billion computations per second with operations across all continents. It's vital that visa has a stable system to manage all of those transactions this is why the organization has not one but two mega operation centers. There is the operation center East located in Virginia and the operation center central which is based in Colorado, both data centers are heavily secured against all kinds of threats including crime terrorism and natural disasters. They can handle up to fifty six thousand simultaneously occurring transactions and over 100 billion computations per second. Additionally, each of these transactions is checked for 500 variables, 100 of which are aimed at fraud detection.

7.    Visa does not issue cards set interest rates or make loans. There is a popular misconception that visa loans money to customers on the contrary visa is just the proverbial middleman. They don't issue cards set cardholder fees or interest rates or make loans. It's unique business model is set up in such a way that, visa enables money to move from the bank issuing customers with the funds to the point-of-sale. At the merchants end, visa does not at any point whatsoever provide either party with money. It generates revenue from service revenues which are charged as a percentage of the whole amount transacted for visa. The higher the payment volume, the higher the revenue.

8.    Visa is not highly ranked on America's best employers list.  According to forbes, Visa is ranked number 320 on america's best employers list. This is relatively low for a company with estimated sales close to 16 billion dollars. A company of its magnitude is expected to employ more than just its current 11300 american employees.

9.   visa spent over 7 billion dollars in share buybacks. The market capitalisation of most big companies on the stock exchange does not come close to seven billion dollars. However, visa spent it as much on share buybacks. In 2016 alone this is two billion dollars higher than the free cash flow this makes visa number one when it comes to buybacks with specific regards to free cash flow spent on buybacks as well as the total outflow.

10.        visa stocks are at a record high with business currently at an all-time. High visa has managed to exceed Wall Street's expectations for the company's quarterly profit expectation.  Consequently, the organization's shares which are a part of the parcel of the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen by a massive two percent . In turn, this leaves the stock at a record high of $110 and 16 cents per share.

11.       Visa is big on sports sponsorships. A number of people don't realize that visa Inc is big on sports sponsorships since 1980. it has regularly sponsored the Olympic Games. As such, visa is the only payment option accepted in most Olympic venues. It has also been a longtime sponsor of the National Football League since 1995 and the International Paralympic Committee since 2002 visa also sponsored the 2007 World Cup held in South Africa.

12.       Visas introducing payment wearables at the Olympic Winter Games. Since it's a major player in sports events, visa has gone a notch higher and announced it will be providing payment wearables for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. Team visa athletes and fans will enjoy the convenience of visa payment enabled stickers commemorative Olympic pins and gloves this is the first time such a payment will be used at an Olympics event.

13.       The blue and yellow associated with visa are symbolic. Visas original logo was fairly simple with a blue stripe at the top and a yellow stripe on the bottom. But these colors were specifically chosen for a reason the blue represents the sky and the yellow represents the golden hills of California where the company was founded.

14.       visa helped Odell Beckham jr. set a world record being an NFL sponsor since 1995. Visa decided to use NFL analogies to show consumers that visa checkout was as direct friction-free and fast as the perfect one-handed catch. Therefore, the company enlisted New York giant wide receiver Odell Beckham jr. to catch footballs being thrown by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees on live TV on January 29 2015 before the Superbowl commenced Odell caught 33 one-handed passes in a minute shattering the Guinness world record.

15.       The United States is visa’s biggest market despite covering over 150 countries worldwide. As greatest market share originates from the United States, fifty-five percent of its total revenue comes from American clients alone .