Corporate affairs

Headquarters

As of October 1, 2012, Visa's headquarters are located in Foster City, California.^[1] Visa had been headquartered in San Francisco until 1985, when it moved to San Mateo.^[69] Around 1993, Visa began consolidating various scattered offices in San Mateo to a location in Foster City.^[69] Visa became Foster City's largest employer.
In 2009, Visa moved its corporate headquarters back to San Francisco when it leased the top three floors of the 595 Market Street office building, although most of its employees remained at its Foster City campus.^[70] In 2012, Visa decided to consolidate its headquarters in Foster City where 3,100 of its 7,700 global workers are employed.^[1] Visa owns four buildings at the intersection of Metro Center Boulevard and Vintage Park Drive.
On December 11, 2012 Visa Inc. confirmed that it will build a global information technology center off of the US 183 Expressway in northwest Austin, Texas.^[71]

Operations

Visa offers through its issuing members the following types of cards:

• Debit cards (pay from a checking / savings account)
• Credit cards (pay monthly payments with or with out interest depending on a customer paying on time.)
• Prepaid cards (pay from a cash account that has no checkwriting privileges)

Visa operates the Plus automated teller machine network and the Interlink EFTPOS point-of-sale network, which facilitate the "debit" protocol used with debit cards and prepaid cards. They also provide commercial payment solutions for small businesses, midsize and large corporations, and governments.^[72]
Visa teamed with Apple in September 2014, to incorporate a new mobile wallet feature into Apple's new iPhone models, enabling users to more readily use their Visa, and other credit/debit cards.^[73]

Operating regulations

Visa has a set of rules that govern the participation of financial institutions in its payment system. Acquiring banks are responsible for ensuring that their merchants comply with the rules.
Rules address how a cardholder must be identified for security, how transactions may be denied by the bank and how banks may cooperate for fraud prevention, and how to keep that identification and fraud protection standard and non-discriminatory. Other rules govern what creates an enforceable proof of authorization by the cardholder.^[74]
The rules prohibit merchants from imposing a minimum or maximum purchase amount in order to accept a Visa card and from charging cardholders a fee for using a Visa card.^[74] In ten U.S. states, surcharges for the use of a credit card are forbidden by law (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas) but a discount for cash is permitted under specific rules.^[75] Some countries have banned the no-surcharge rule, most notably the UK^[76] and Australia^[77] and retailers in those countries may apply surcharges to any credit-card transaction, Visa or otherwise.
Visa permits merchants to ask for photo ID, although the merchant rule book states that this practice is discouraged. As long as the Visa card is signed, a merchant may not deny a transaction because a cardholder refuses to show a photo ID.^[74]
The Dodd–Frank Act allows U.S. merchants to set a minimum purchase amount on credit card transactions, not to exceed $10.^[78][79]
Recent complications include the addition of exceptions for non-signed purchases by telephone or on the Internet, and an additional security system called "Verified by Visa" for purchases on the Internet.
In September 2014, Visa Inc, launched a new service to replace account information on plastic cards with "token" - a digital account number.^[80]

payWave

In September 2007, Visa introduced Visa payWave, a contactless payment technology feature that allows cardholders to wave their card in front of contactless payment terminals without the need to physically swipe or insert the card into a point-of-sale device.^[81] This is similar to the MasterCard PayPass service and the American Express ExpressPay, with both using RFID technology. All three use the same symbol as shown on the right.
In Europe, Visa has introduced the V PAY card which is chip-only and PIN-only. ^[82] In Australia, take up has been the highest in the world, with more than 50% of in store Visa transactions now made via Visa payWave. ^[83]