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| Visa Processing |
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 Visa Inc. is a global payments technology company
headquartered in San Francisco, Califonia. It facilitates
electronic funds transfer throughout the world, most
commonly through Visa-branded credit card and debit card.
Visa does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and
fees for consumers; rather, Visa provides financial
institutions with Visa-branded payment products that they
then use to offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash-access
programs to their customers.
Visa has operations across Asia-Pacific, North America,
Central and South America, Caribbean, Central and Eastern
Europe, Africa and Middle East. Visa Europe is a separate
membership entity that is an exclusive licensee of Visa
Inc.'s trademarks and technology in the European region,
issuing cards such as Visa Debit. |
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Operating Regulations |
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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. 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. Some countries have banned the no-surcharge rule, most
notably the UK and Australia and retailers in those
countries may apply surcharges to any credit-card
transaction, Visa or otherwise. Unlike MasterCard, Visa does
permit 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.
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. |
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