What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2021-11-18 compared with 2020-11-19 · 210 added, 294 removed, 116 unchanged (81% of the section changed)

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Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payments network — enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive.

We facilitate digital payments across more than 200 countries and territories among a global set of consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners and government entities through innovative technologies.

We facilitate global commerce and money movement across more than 200 countries and territories among a global set of consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners and government entities through innovative technologies.

Since Visa’s inception in 1958, Visa has been in the business of facilitating payments between consumers and businesses.

With new ways to pay, we have evolved into a global company that is a Trusted Engine of Commerce, providing payment solutions for everyone, everywhere.

We are focused on extending, enhancing and investing in our proprietary network, VisaNet, while seeking new ways to offer products and services and become a single connection point for facilitating any payment transaction, both on the Visa network and beyond.

• We facilitate secure, reliable and convenient transactions between financial institutions, merchants and consumers.

We traditionally have referred to this as the “four-party” model.

As the payments ecosystem continues to evolve, we have broadened this model to include digital banks, wallets and a range of financial technology companies (fintechs), governments and non-governmental organizations.

We provide transaction processing services (primarily authorization, clearing and settlement) to our financial institution and merchant clients through VisaNet.

During fiscal year 2020, we saw 204 billion payments and cash transactions with Visa’s brand, equating to an average of 559 million transactions a day.

With new ways to pay, we have evolved into a global company that is a trusted engine of commerce, working to provide payment solutions for everyone, everywhere.

We offer products and solutions that facilitate secure, reliable and efficient money movement for all participants in the ecosystem.

• We facilitate secure, reliable and convenient transactions among financial institutions, merchants and consumers.

We have traditionally referred to this as the “four-party” model.

As the payments ecosystem continues to evolve, we have broadened this model to include digital banks, digital wallets and a range of financial technology companies (fintechs), governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

We provide transaction processing services (primarily authorization, clearing and settlement) to our financial institution and merchant clients through VisaNet, our advanced transaction processing network.

During fiscal year 2021, we saw 232 billion payments and cash transactions with Visa’s brand, equating to an average of 637 million transactions per day.

Of the 232 billion total transactions, 165 billion were processed by Visa.

• We offer a wide range of Visa-branded payment products that our 15,100 financial institution clients use to develop and offer core business solutions, including credit, debit, prepaid and cash access programs for individual, business and government account holders.

During fiscal year 2020, Visa’s total payments and cash volume was $11.3 trillion, and 3.5 billion credentials were available worldwide to be used at nearly 70 million merchant locations.

During fiscal year 2021, Visa’s total payments and cash volume was $13 trillion, and 3.7 billion credentials were available worldwide to be used at more than 80 million (1) merchant locations.

• We take an open partnership approach and seek to provide value by enabling access to our global network, including offering our technology capabilities through application programming interfaces (APIs).

We partner with both traditional and emerging players to innovate and expand the payments ecosystem, allowing them to leverage the resources of our platform to scale and grow their businesses more quickly and effectively.

It also creates a more inclusive ecosystem with products that could reach the under and unbanked populations.

• We are accelerating the migration to digital payments and evolving Visa to be a “network of networks” to enable the movement of money on VisaNet and beyond.

Visa’s network of networks approach creates opportunities by facilitating person-to-person (P2P), business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), business-to-small business (B2b) and government-to-consumer (G2C) payments.

• We provide value added services to our clients, including issuer and consumer solutions, merchant and acquirer solutions, fraud management and security services, data solutions, and consulting through Visa Consulting & Analytics.

• We invest in and promote our brand to the benefit of our clients and partners through advertising, promotional and sponsorship initiatives with FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee and the National Football League, among others.

• We are accelerating the migration to digital payments and evolving Visa to be a “network of networks” to enable the movement of money through all available networks.

We aim to provide a single connection point so that Visa clients can enable money movement for businesses, governments, and consumers regardless of which network is used to start or complete the transaction;

ultimately, helping to unify a complex payments ecosystem.

• We provide value added services to our clients, including issuer solutions;

acceptance solutions;

risk and identity solutions;

and advisory services.

We also use these sponsorship assets to showcase our payment innovations.

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(1) Data provided to Visa by acquiring institutions and other third parties.

FISCAL YEAR 2021 KEY STATISTICS

(1) Please see Item 7–Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial results.

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Revenue Details

Net revenues consist of service revenues, data processing revenues, international transaction revenues, and other revenues minus costs incurred under client incentive arrangements.

(1) Please see Item 7–Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP financial results.

OUR CORE BUSINESS

In an example of a typical Visa C2B payment transaction, the consumer purchases goods or services from a merchant using a Visa card or payment product.

The merchant presents the transaction data to an acquirer, usually a bank or third-party processing firm that supports acceptance of Visa cards or payment products, for verification and processing.

Through VisaNet, the acquirer presents the transaction data to Visa, which in turn contacts the issuer to check the account holder’s account or credit line for authorization.

After the transaction is authorized, the issuer effectively pays the acquirer an amount equal to the value of the transaction, minus the interchange reimbursement fee, and then posts the transaction to the consumer’s account.

The acquirer pays the amount of the purchase, minus the merchant discount rate (MDR), to the merchant.

Visa earns revenue by facilitating money movement across more than 200 countries and territories among a global set of consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners and government entities through innovative technologies.

Net revenues consist of service revenues, data processing revenues, international transaction revenues and other revenues, minus client incentive arrangements we have with our clients.

We have one reportable segment, which is Payment Services.

Visa earns revenue by facilitating payments across more than 200 countries and territories among a global set of consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners and government entities through innovative technologies.

(1) Figures in the tables may not recalculate exactly due to rounding.

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We generally do not experience any pronounced seasonality in our business.

Visa is not a financial institution.

We do not issue cards, extend credit, or set rates and fees for account holders of Visa products.

That is the role of our financial institution clients.

We do not earn revenues from, or bear credit risk with respect to, interest or fees paid by account holders on Visa products.

Interchange reimbursement fees represent a transfer of value between the financial institutions participating in our payments network.

We administer the collection and remittance of interchange reimbursement fees through the settlement process, but we generally do not receive any revenue related to interchange reimbursement fees.

In addition, we do not receive as revenue the fees that merchants are charged directly for acceptance by their acquirers.

ACCELERATING OUR BUSINESS:

FISCAL YEAR 2020 KEY FOCUS AREAS

F iscal year 2020 and COVID-19 have brought unprecedented challenges and widespread economic and social change.

At the same time, the past fiscal year demonstrated the strength and resiliency of our strategy and the meaningful role we play at the center of the payments ecosystem.

It has also accelerated progress, including accelerating the shift to ecommerce and the demand for contactless payments, providing significant opportunities for Visa that are aligned with our strategy.

As we look to be a single point of connection for money movement globally, there are three primary levers to that growth — consumer payments, new flows and value added services.

We are also building and acquiring new capabilities that can add value to our clients and strengthen the foundation of our business:

technology, security, brand and talent.

We do not issue cards, extend credit, or set rates and fees for account holders of Visa products nor do we earn revenues from, or bear credit risk with respect to, any of these activities.

Interchange reimbursement fees reflect the value merchants receive from accepting our products and play a key role in balancing the costs and benefits that account holders and merchants derive from participating in our payments networks.

Generally, interchange reimbursement fees are collected from acquirers and paid to issuers.

We establish default interchange reimbursement fees that apply absent other established settlement terms.

In addition, we do not earn revenues from the fees that merchants are charged by acquirers for acceptance, including

Our acquiring clients are generally responsible for soliciting merchants as well as establishing and earning these fees.

Our net revenues in fiscal year 2021 consisted of the following:

Visa’s strategy is to accelerate our revenue growth in consumer payments, new flows and value added services, and fortify the key foundations of our business model.

We seek to accelerate revenue growth in three primary areas — consumer payments, new flows and value added services.

Consumer Payments

For decades, Visa’s growth has been driven by the strength of our core business solutions — credit, debit and prepaid products — as well as our global ATM network.

As the pace of change accelerates each year, helped by the advancement of technology and our focus on the user experience in payments for both the face-to-face and ecommerce environments, we see significant opportunity for continued growth.

We are accelerating efforts to move approximately $18 trillion in consumer spending still done in cash and check to cards and digital credentials on the Visa network.

Core Business

Credit cards and digital credentials are issued by Visa’s clients and allow consumers and businesses to access credit to pay for goods and services.

We are accelerating efforts to move approximately $18 trillion (2) in consumer spending still exchanged in cash and check to cards and digital accounts on Visa’s network of networks.

Core Products

Visa’s growth has been driven by the strength of our core products — credit, debit and prepaid products.

Credit cards and digital credentials allow consumers and businesses to access credit to pay for goods and services.

Credit cards are affiliated with programs operated by financial institution clients, co-brand partners, fintechs and affinity partners.

Visa does not extend credit to account holders;

however, we provide technology, authorization services, fraud tools and brand support that issuers use to enable their credit programs.

We also work with our clients on product design, consumer segmentation and consumer experience design to help them deliver products and services that match their customers’ needs.

Debit cards and digital credentials are issued by financial institutions and allow consumers and small businesses to purchase goods and services using funds held in their bank accounts.

Debit cards and digital credentials allow consumers and small businesses to purchase goods and services using funds held in their bank accounts.

Debit cards enable account holders to transact in person, online or via mobile without needing cash or checks and without accessing a line of credit.

Visa provides a strong brand, network infrastructure (which includes processing, acceptance, product features and support, risk tools and services) and industry expertise to help issuers optimize their debit offerings.

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The Visa/PLUS Global ATM network also provides debit, credit and prepaid account holders with cash access, and other banking capabilities, in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide through issuing and acquiring partnerships with both financial institutions and independent ATM operators.

(2) Estimate as of December 2018.

Prepaid cards and digital credentials draw from a designated balance funded by individuals, businesses or governments.

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Visa-branded prepaid cards also play an important part in financial inclusion, bringing payment solutions to those with limited or no access to traditional banking products.

The Visa/PLUS Global ATM network provides account holders with cash access, and other banking capabilities, in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide through issuing and acquiring partnerships with both financial institutions and independent ATM operators.

Ecommerce has evolved since the first online purchase was made on the Visa network more than 25 years ago.

In fiscal year 2020, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant acceleration in the shift away from cash to digital forms of payment.

Ecommerce represents only about 14% of global retail spending, so there is still substantial opportunity for ecommerce growth.

We are helping to transform the digital checkout experience by adding more security and removing friction with the launch of Visa Click to Pay.

Enabled by the EMV® Secure Remote Commerce Specifications, Click to Pay simplifies the checkout experience, eliminating the need for a consumer to enter payment details each time they are paying online.

This means greater consistency and fewer steps at checkout, regardless of one’s payment choice.

Consumers can click to pay with Visa with confidence when they see the Click to Pay icon, a stylized depiction of a fast forward icon, where Visa is accepted.

During fiscal year 2020, Click to Pay went live with select merchants and payment processors and platforms in the U.S., and was enabled in new geographies, including Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom .

As we seek to improve the user experience in the face-to-face environment, tap to pay, which is tapping a contactless card or mobile device on a terminal to make a payment, has emerged as the preferred way to check out amongst consumers in many markets around the world.

Contactless penetration grew to 43% of all face-to-face transactions around the world in fiscal year 2020.

In addition, Visa has worked with payments industry partners and governments to support raising contactless payments limits in markets around the world that require cardholder verification on tap to pay transactions.

More than 50 markets across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Canada have taken this step to help more individuals utilize this way to pay in fiscal year 2020.

is one of the most significant opportunities for growth in tap to pay.

Tap to pay awareness and adoption accelerated in the U.S.

this year, and we expect that demand to continue to grow.

More than 70% of face-to-face transactions at checkout in the U.S.

occur at a merchant that has the ability to accept contactless payments, and more than 80 of the top 100 merchants by transactions are enabled for tap to pay.

(1) The SRC payment icon is available for use in connection with implementations of the EMV® Secure Remote Commerce Specification.

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A key component of how we expand our business focuses on growing access and increasing acceptance of our products around the world.

Mobile connectivity, new acceptance devices untethered to landline infrastructure and new partnerships are enabling Visa payments in categories where card acceptance has typically been low, such as rent, parking and vending machines.

We accomplish this in a few ways:

Drive new acceptance categories to uncover additional growth .

We continue to expand our acceptance footprint in both mature and emerging markets, so that businesses and devices are enabled to send and receive funds via the Visa network in categories such as vending, laundry, gaming, parking, electric vehicle charging, rent and tuition.

For example, in emerging markets, while 40% of the national GDP is contributed by small and micro-sellers, fewer than 10% of these sellers currently accept digital payments.

In January 2020, Visa announced Tap to Phone technology to help sellers accept digital payments without any additional hardware.

This technology allows micro-businesses to use smartphones to accept digital payments instead of a software terminal.

Promote inclusive financial access .

According to the World Bank, 1.7 billion adults worldwide still lack access to formal financial services, which means they do not have access to the services that can help facilitate the growth of their economic livelihood.

In 2015, Visa made a commitment to provide first-time access to a digital payments account for 500 million people worldwide by 2020 in support of the World Bank’s goal of Universal Financial Access.

We met this commitment ahead of schedule in 2019.

We are continuing this work by supporting women’s advancement, small businesses, and the expansion of financial inclusion through programs that support skill development and access to networks and financial services for under and unbanked populations.

For example, in June, we announced a global commitment to elevate 50 million small and micro businesses worldwide in an effort to help local businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the global commitment, Visa also formed the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute focused on economic and societal issues, including pandemic challenges small and micro businesses face and closing racial and gender opportunity gaps.

Fintech/Open Partnership Model

As the payment ecosystem grows, so too does Visa’s partnership model.

Fintechs are key enablers of new payment experiences and new flows.

Our work with fintechs helps to open new points of acceptance, create new digital banking experiences, move money across borders, embed Visa into B2B flows, speed up payroll and ensure digital wallet customers can access our services.

Fintechs prefer partnering with Visa because of the reach, capabilities, and security Visa offers.

Today, Visa has partnered with fintechs across categories including digital wallets, neobanks, “Buy Now, Pay Later”, B2B payments, cross-border remittance, payments infrastructure, and P2P payments.

To better serve fintechs, Visa has created a suite of streamlined commercial programs and digital onboarding tools.

Our Fintech Fast Track program enables qualifying fintechs to quickly launch and scale their programs.

The program has grown 360% year-over-year and has welcomed hundreds of fintechs who are actively engaged in the program.

With our startup engagement programs, the Visa Everywhere Initiative and the Inclusive Fintech 50, early stage companies can build payment solutions based on our capabilities.

All of our fintech resources are available online on Visa Partner, which provides a comprehensive set of services and resources so that partners can access APIs, apply for programs, complete an online licensing process and find relevant partners to help construct new flows.

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New flows represent a $185 trillion opportunity.

Visa’s network of networks approach creates opportunities to enable digital payments for consumers, businesses and governments around the world by facilitating P2P, B2C, B2B, B2b and G2C payments.

Today, partners are increasingly using Visa’s network infrastructure and capabilities to enable Visa to unlock a growing market opportunity.

Visa Direct is a global, real-time (2) push payments platform, which reverses the traditional card payment flow by allowing payment originators, through their acquirer, to push funds directly to cards, and with the acquisition of Earthport, Visa Direct can now also push directly to 1.5 billion additional bank accounts.

In doing this, Visa Direct supports consumer and business money flows, which is estimated to be $65 trillion, for a variety of payment use cases, including corporate, government and worker payouts, P2P, real-time merchant settlement, and fast cross-border payment capabilities to more than 140 countries.

Visa Direct enables Visa to capture new flows with nearly 3.5 billion global transactions in 2020.

This growth was fueled by the expansion of existing use cases, the extension of existing use cases to new countries, the development of new use cases, and the creation and deepening of partnerships worldwide.

P2P continued to be a strong contributor, with more than 100 P2P providers globally, led by a 75% year-over-year growth in global P2P transactions.

Additionally, we expanded P2P globally in domestic and cross-border capacities with many partners this year.

Many businesses also utilize Visa Direct to have real-time access to working capital to buy inventory, make payroll and service other cash flow needs to keep their businesses running, such as real-time merchant settlement and loan disbursements.

During fiscal year 2020, Visa Direct enabled faster payouts to more than 2.35 million U.S.

small businesses and sellers, helping to provide fast access to funds to improve cash flow.

In the wake of COVID-19, we are seeing more governments adopt Visa Direct to distribute funds quickly, safely and broadly, often reaching the unbanked.

We offer capabilities, tools and solutions that enable consumer payments and help our clients grow as digital commerce, new technologies and new participants continue to transform the payments ecosystem.

Some of our offerings include:

As we seek to improve the user experience in the face-to-face environment, contactless payments or tap to pay, which is tapping a contactless card or mobile device on a terminal to make a payment, has emerged as a preferred way to pay among consumers in many countries around the world.

Tap to pay adoption is growing and many consumers have come to expect touchless payment experiences.

In addition, Visa continues to work with payments industry partners and governments to support raising contactless payment limits.

Globally we have more than 20 countries with more than 90 percent contactless penetration and nearly 70 countries where tap to pay is more than 50 percent of face-to-face transactions.

Excluding the United States, nearly 70 percent of face-to-face transactions globally were contactless.

In the U.S., Visa has more than 15 percent contactless penetration.

We have 400 million tap-to-pay-enabled Visa cards, and now three cities have above 25 percent face-to-face tap-to-pay penetration:

New York, San Francisco and San Jose.

We have activated nearly 500 contactless public transport projects worldwide and have nearly 750 projects in our pipeline.

Visa Token Service (VTS) brings trust to digital commerce innovation.

As consumers increasingly rely on digital transactions, VTS is designed to enhance the digital ecosystem through improved authorization, reduced fraud and improved customer experience.

VTS helps protect digital transactions by replacing 16-digit Visa account numbers with a token protecting the underlying account information.

This security technology can work for a variety of payment transactions, both in the physical and online space.

The issuance of network tokens continues to accelerate.

In the past 17 months, we have more than doubled the number of network tokens issued from one billion to 2.6 billion.

By comparison, it took nearly six years to reach our first one billion network tokens.

Click to Pay provides a simplified and more consistent cardholder checkout experience online by removing time-consuming key entry of personal information and enabling consumer and transaction data to be passed securely between payments network participants.

Based on the EMV® Secure Remote Commerce industry standard, Click to Pay brings a standardized and streamlined approach to online checkout and meets the needs of consumers shopping across a growing number of connected devices.

The goal of Click to Pay is to make digital payments safe, consistent, and interoperable like the checkout experience in physical stores.

Cryptocurrency

We enable cryptocurrencies for everyday payments through our global presence, partnership approach and trusted brand.

We want to serve as the bridge between the crypto ecosystem and our global network, which would enable our clients to provide consumers the ability to easily convert cryptocurrencies into fiat and access our global network of more than 80 million merchant locations and 15,100 financial institutions.

In fiscal year 2021, we had $3.5 billion in payments volume on crypto-linked card programs, which are crypto wallets linked to Visa credentials

where cryptocurrencies are converted to fiat currency before funds can be accessed through the Visa credential.

We are advancing this effort through our partnerships with nearly 60 crypto platforms on crypto-linked Visa card programs.

We are also building infrastructure capabilities and value added services to support crypto use cases, including future settlement in digital currencies, a new Visa Crypto API platform to help financial institutions create a cryptocurrency offering, assisting central banks as they evaluate digital currencies and a growing number of other services and infrastructure capabilities.

New flows represent a $185 trillion (3) volume opportunity.

Visa’s network of networks approach creates opportunities to capture new sources of money movement through card and non-card flows for consumers, businesses and governments around the world by facilitating P2P, B2C, B2B, B2b and G2C payments.

Visa Direct is Visa’s global, real-time (4) push payments platform, which reverses the traditional card payment flow by allowing payment originators, through their acquirer, to push funds directly to eligible debit and prepaid cards or accounts.

It helps facilitate fast, simple and secure money movement around the world, enabling businesses and consumers to send money directly to a bank account or card, including domestic or cross-border payouts and payments, P2P, payments to small businesses, and corporate, worker, insurance and government payouts.

In fiscal year 2021, we had 5.2 billion Visa Direct transactions, an increase of 50 percent year over year, and more than 20 use cases and 500 programs.

Visa Direct connected 16 card-based networks, 66 automated clearing house (ACH) schemes, seven real time payment (RTP) networks and five gateways.

With the addition of Visa Direct Payouts, Visa Direct provides access to almost 6 billion credentials across more than 200 countries and territories.

Visa Business Solutions

We are also extending our network with B2B payments.

Our three strategic areas of focus include investing and growing card-based payments, accelerating our efforts in non-card, cross-border payments and digitizing domestic accounts payable and accounts receivable processes.

We offer a portfolio of business payment solutions, including small business, corporate (travel) cards, purchasing cards, virtual cards and digital credentials, non-card cross-border B2B payment options and disbursement accounts, covering most major industry segments around the world.

Business solutions are designed to bring efficiency, controls and automation to small businesses, commercial and government payment processes, ranging from employee travel to fully integrated, invoice-based payables.

Businesses spend an estimated $120 trillion each year.

Visa B2B Connect is a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network designed to facilitate transactions from the bank of origin directly to the beneficiary bank, helping streamline settlement and optimize payments for financial institutions’ corporate client base.

The network delivers B2B cross-border payments that are predictable, flexible, data-rich, secure and cost-effective.

Visa B2B Connect continues to scale, with the ability to operate in more than 100 countries and territories.

(3) McKinsey Global Payments Map and Visa Analysis, 2018.

(4) Actual fund availability varies by receiving financial institution, receiving account type, region and whether the transaction is domestic or cross-border.

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Our existing commercial card solutions generated nearly $1 trillion in payments volume in fiscal year 2020.

We continue to invest across our small business, travel and entertainment, purchasing, fleet and virtual card solutions to further digitize how businesses pay other businesses.

Visa B2B Connect is a multilateral network that operates separately from VisaNet and facilitates B2B cross-border transactions directly from an originating bank to the recipient bank.

This network gives financial institutions the ability to quickly and securely process high-value corporate cross-border payments globally and helps simplify and speed up the way businesses pay other businesses around the world.

Visa B2B Connect’s current reach includes 80 markets, and we expect that we will expand to 30 new markets over the next 18-24 months, aiming to reach scale by 2022.

We are continuing to build out our capabilities and relationships to fuel future growth and to help our clients fulfill the international payments needs of their customers.

Value Added Services

As the payments category continues to evolve and expand in scope, size and complexity, our clients are increasingly looking for insights, and Visa is well positioned to support their needs.

Value added services represent an opportunity for us to help our clients grow their businesses, often resulting in additional growth for our core business.

In addition, they deepen our client relationships and deliver new sources of revenue.

Today, we offer a suite of value added services, including issuer and consumer solutions, merchant and acquirer solutions, fraud management and security services, data products, and consulting and analytics.

Issuer and Consumer Solutions

Value added services represent an opportunity for us to diversify our revenue with products and solutions that differentiate our network, deepen our client relationships and deliver innovative solutions across other networks.

Issuer Solutions

Visa Debit Processing Service (DPS) is one of the largest issuer processors of Visa debit transactions in the world and is able to deliver agility at scale.

Visa DPS provides a wide range of debit, prepaid and credit value added services to clients including call center services, data analytics, campaign management, fraud and risk solutions, and a white-label branded mobile app.

client base includes national banks, community banks and credit unions, as well as a rapidly increasing number of fintechs.

DPS continues to extend and expand our capabilities in modern, API-based issuer processing solutions, which will be used for the U.S.

Visa DPS continues to extend and expand our capabilities in modern, API-based issuer processing solutions called DPS Forward, which will be used for both the U.S.

and international markets.

We also provide a range of other services and digital solutions to issuers, such as account controls, digital issuance, branded consumer experiences and installments.

Installment payments allow shoppers the flexibility to pay for a purchase in equal payments over a defined period of time.

Visa is investing in installments as a payments strategy — both by building our own solution, Visa Installments — and by partnering with innovative installments providers who leverage our assets to support a wider variety of installment options.

Visa Installments enables issuing banks to offer Visa cardholders the option to divide their total purchase amount into smaller payments during or after checkout, at the store and online — with a Visa card they already have in their wallet.

Through Cybersource, Visa’s global payment management platform, we are working with acquirers and fintech installment providers to enable this new way to pay for Cybersource’s merchant customers.

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Merchant and Acquirer Solutions

The Cybersource platform provides payment services for more than 450,000 clients.

Cybersource’s small business solutions are represented by the Authorize.Net brand in North America.

Through a single integration, Cybersource provides modular, digital capabilities beyond the traditional gateway function of connecting merchants to payment processing.

We have expanded Visa DPS into Europe, providing European issuers in select countries access to a comprehensive and end-to-end solution, from core processing services to value added services.

We also provide a range of other services and digital solutions to issuers, such as account controls, digital issuance, branded consumer experiences and buy now pay later (BNPL) capabilities.

BNPL or installment payments allow shoppers the flexibility to pay for a purchase in equal payments over a defined period of time.

Visa is investing in installments as a payments strategy — by offering our own solution, Visa Installments — and by partnering with innovative installments providers who use our cards and services to support a wider variety of installment options.

Visa Installments offers issuing banks the opportunity to offer Visa cardholders the option to divide their total purchase amount into smaller payments during or after checkout, at the store and online at participating merchants.

Acceptance Solutions

Cybersource is a global payment management platform that provides modular, digital capabilities in addition to the traditional gateway function of connecting merchants to payment processing.

Using Cybersource, merchants of all sizes can improve the way their consumers engage and transact, mitigate fraud and security risk, lower operational costs and adapt to changing business requirements.

Cybersource’s global footprint lets merchants accept payments in more than 190 countries and territories around the world and includes a broad choice of acquirers and processors, payment types and hardware components.

Cybersource white-labeled capabilities continue to drive innovation in the payments ecosystem and enable better customer experiences.

Cybersource also invested in new and enhanced payment integrations with commerce platforms, enabling sellers and acquirers to provide tailored commerce experiences with payments seamlessly embedded.

Cybersource enables an omni-channel solution with a cloud-based architecture to deliver more innovation at the point-of-sale.

Our omni-channel solution has been adopted by multiple retailers in the U.S.

and in Europe.

Decision Manager delivered through Cybersource supports transaction security for sellers.

It leverages the power of network-wide fraud insights and combines it with hundreds of standard API elements, including IP addresses, device fingerprints, order details and analytics, to produce more than 260 detectors in addition to a score for every transaction to help sellers separate fraudulent transactions from non-fraudulent ones.

Decision Manager helps merchants reduce exposure to fraud, which is critical for optimizing both revenue and profits for merchants.

Visa continues to invest in its dispute management services.

In fiscal year 2019, we acquired Verifi, a leader in technology solutions to reduce chargebacks.

With this acquisition, Visa has been able to offer a network agnostic value added solution, enabling merchants to manage disputes across all their payment methods with a single connection.

Fraud Management and Security Services

Security and Identity

Trust is at the core of Visa.

Through an evolving and multilayered approach, Visa strives to expect the unexpected, constantly monitoring our network and sharing intelligence with our partners.

Our multi-prong security strategy is based on empowering consumers and clients through tools, resources and controls to make more informed risk decisions.

To provide these tools, we invest in intelligence and technologies that improve fraud and authorization performance.

In fiscal year 2020, Visa Advanced Authorization risk scored 141 billion Visa-processed transactions – each transaction across more than 500 risk factors in about one millisecond.

In the last year, Visa’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered risk scoring engine helped financial institutions prevent nearly $25 billion in fraud.

We believe security is an integral driver for growth and innovation.

Several developments over the course of fiscal year 2020 help demonstrate our approach:

• We continued to see the benefits of chip technology, where each transaction is accompanied by a one-time code that protects consumer information, in preventing counterfeit fraud and reducing fraud occurring in person at physical stores.

In the U.S., for example, our most recent data shows an 87 percent decline in counterfeit fraud at chip-enabled merchants since 2015.

Contactless-enabled payment cards use the same trusted security of chip cards.

EMV® 3-D Secure (3DS) is a new generation of the protocol — developed by EMVCo’s members along with other industry participants — and is designed to protect accounts from unauthorized use across desktop, laptop, mobile or other connected devices, making online purchases easier and more secure.

• A new digital tool was introduced to help U.S.

financial institutions with their efforts to combat new account fraud and give consumers greater peace of mind.

Advanced Identity Score combines Visa’s AI and predictive machine learning capabilities with application and identity related data to generate a risk score for new account applications to help reduce fraud, prevent negative impacts to brand loyalty and trust, and eliminate operational costs due to remediation.

Advanced Identity Score can decrease the number of new

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accounts opened with stolen identities, protect consumers against synthetic ID or account takeover fraud, save time and help eliminate a poor customer experience.

Visa is also committed to helping protect the broader payments ecosystem from growing cyber threats and fraud through continued investments in intelligence and technology.

Visa operates a suite of programs to protect the safety and soundness of the payments ecosystem, investing in intelligence and technology to prevent, detect and mitigate security threats, and empowering our partners with the tools and data necessary to make better risk management decisions that are a core benefit of being part of the Visa network.

Our security capabilities, programs and expertise help protect the integrity of the payments ecosystem by seeking to detect and disrupt fraud threats targeting financial institutions and merchants and removing bad actors from the ecosystem to provide the best possible consumer experience.

This is achieved through the combined efforts of payment and cyber intelligence, insights and learnings from client/partner breach investigations, and law enforcement engagement to help financial institutions and merchants solve critical security challenges.

Visa Token Service

Visa Token Service is a security technology that helps combat fraud for both face-to-face and ecommerce digital transactions, including mobile and “Internet of Things (IoT)” payments.

The technology replaces a consumer’s card-related sensitive information, such as personal account number, with a unique, one-time use identifier, or token , which protects transactions in a number of ways, including when a card or shopper is not physically present.

Launched in 2014, tokenization has been brought to scale over the last six years.

We expanded tokenization globally this year, crossing the 1.4 billion tokens milestone and enabling more than 8,300 issuers across 192 markets.

Following the acquisition of Rambus Payments’ token services business, Visa rebranded the business unit to Token ID - A Visa Solution.

Token ID will expand Visa’s tokenization capabilities beyond card-based payments on the Visa network to include domestic card, automated clearing house (ACH) and real-time payment networks to facilitate secure payments across a broader range of global commerce types.

Data Solutions

Data lies at the heart of strategic decisions that governments, financial institutions, fintechs and merchants make to help meet their customers' needs, create new products and experiences, enhance security and bolster customer loyalty.

Visa harnesses the power of our rich global datasets to deliver insights, benchmarks and predictive models that benefit our ecosystem.

With Visa’s Benchmarking and Operations Solutions, clients can identify opportunities to increase spend and authorization rates and reduce fraud, disputes, chargebacks and operational costs.

Visa’s suite of Marketing Solutions uses Visa data to help issuers and merchants plan, target, and measure marketing campaigns and communications.

Through Visa’s Underwriting Solutions, Visa is helping clients harness data to improve portfolio management strategies such as credit line increase programs, cross sale of lending products and working capital management for small businesses.

Visa Consulting & Analytics

Visa Consulting & Analytics is the payments consulting advisory arm of Visa.

This group is a client-facing global team of more than 550 payments consultants, data scientists and economists in more than 100 cities.

The combination of our deep payments expertise, our breadth of data and our economic intelligence allows us to identify actionable insights, recommendations and solutions that drive better business decisions and measurable outcomes for clients.

Visa Consulting & Analytics offers consulting services for issuers, acquirers, merchants, fintechs and others that span the entire customer journey.

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The foundation of our business is comprised of our technology, security, brand and talent.

Visa’s technology platform comprises software, hardware, data centers and a vast telecommunications infrastructure, each with a distinct architecture and operational footprint wrapped with several layers of security and protection technologies.

Together, these systems deliver the secure, convenient and reliable service that our clients and consumers expect of the Visa brand.

As part of our global technology environment, we build and securely operate hundreds of commercial applications using a diverse set of technologies.

Our software powers the core functions of our transaction processing — including authorization, clearing and settlement, and risk scoring — as well as our value added services.

These applications together work to provide essential services to the payments ecosystem.

We rely on a diverse array of sophisticated infrastructure systems that are tailored to our services.

Visa's infrastructure is designed and configured with layers of redundancies.

We have multiple instances of our software running on separate pieces of hardware, which is designed to provide continuous availability.

Our disaster recovery capabilities are tiered so that our real-time transaction processing services can be continuously available.

Visa operates four data centers that are a critical part of our global processing environment and are built with the capacity to support Visa’s growing power, cooling and space needs.

All of our data centers have high redundancy of network connectivity, power and cooling designed to provide continuous availability of systems.

We are continuing to reduce the carbon footprint of our data centers by deploying efficiency improvement strategies, including LED lighting, variable airflow automation controls and hot-and-cold air containment technologies.

Telecommunications

We connect our clients and partners to Visa’s data centers through a massive telecommunications network covering more than 10 million route miles.

Each network node is connected through redundant links, designed to provide high levels of security, availability and performance for our products and services.

In parallel with our role in advancing the security of the broader payments ecosystem, Visa remains committed to championing cybersecurity.

Our multifaceted security approach includes deploying security tools that help keep our clients and consumers safe, while providing solutions that make Visa the best way to pay and be paid.

We invest significantly in our comprehensive approach to cybersecurity at Visa.

We deploy security technologies to protect against data confidentiality, integrity and availability risks, emphasizing core cybersecurity

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capabilities to minimize risk exposure.

Our in-depth security approach applies multiple layers of protection to reduce the risk of any single control failing.

These measures include:

• A formal program to devalue sensitive and/or personal data through various cryptographic means

Cybersource white-labeled capabilities provide new and enhanced payment integrations with ecommerce platforms, enabling sellers and acquirers to provide tailored commerce experiences with payments seamlessly embedded.

Cybersource enables an omnichannel solution with a cloud-based architecture to deliver more innovation at the point-of-sale.

In addition, we provide secure, reliable services for merchants and acquirers that reduce friction and drive acceptance.

Examples include Global Urban Mobility, which allows transit operators to accept Visa contactless payments in addition to proprietary closed-loop payment solutions;

Rapid Seller Onboarding, which enables digital onboarding of small businesses and acquirers;

and Visa Account Updater, which provides updated account information to merchants to strengthen customer relationships and retention.

Visa also offers dispute management services, including a network agnostic solution with Verifi that enables merchants to prevent and resolve disputes with a single connection.

Risk and Identity Solutions

Visa’s risk and identity solutions transform data into insights for near real-time decisions and facilitate account holder authentication to help clients prevent fraud and protect account holder data.

With the increasing popularity of omnichannel commerce among consumers, preventing fraud helps increase trust in digital payments.

Solutions such as Visa Advanced Authorization, Visa Secure, Visa Advanced Identity Score, Visa Consumer Authentication Service, and payment-decisioning solutions from CardinalCommerce empower financial institutions and merchants with tools that help automate and simplify fraud prevention and enhance payment security.

These value added payment security tools layer on top of a suite of programs that protect the safety and integrity of the payment ecosystem, and along with our investments in intelligence and technology, help to prevent, detect and mitigate threats.

These programs and Visa’s fraud prevention expertise are among the core benefits of being part of the Visa network.

Through the combined efforts of security and identity tools and services, payment and cyber intelligence, insights and learnings from client/partner breach investigations and law enforcement

engagement, Visa helps protect financial institutions and merchants from fraud and solve payment security challenges.

Advisory Services

Visa Consulting and Analytics is the payments consulting advisory arm of Visa.

The combination of our deep payments expertise, proprietary analytical models applied to a breadth of data and our economic intelligence allows us to identify actionable insights, make recommendations and help implement solutions that can drive better business decisions and measurable outcomes for clients.

Visa Consulting and Analytics offers consulting services for issuers, acquirers, merchants, fintechs and other partners, spanning the entire customer journey from acquisition to retention.

We are fortifying the key foundations of our business model, which consist of becoming a network of networks, our technology platforms, security, brand and talent.

Network of Networks

Visa strives to become a network of networks, offering a single connection point for senders and receivers to enable money movement to all endpoints and to all form factors, using all available networks.

Technology Platforms

Visa’s technology platforms include software, hardware, data centers and a large telecommunications infrastructure, each with a distinct architecture and operational footprint wrapped with several layers of security and protection technologies.

Visa’s three data centers are a critical part of our global processing environment and have a high redundancy of network connectivity, power and cooling designed to provide continuous availability of systems.

Together, these systems deliver the secure, convenient and reliable service that our clients and consumers expect from the Visa brand.

Our in-depth, multi-layer security approach includes a formal program to devalue sensitive and/or personal data through various cryptographic means;

embedded security in the software development lifecycle;

identity and access management controls to protect against unauthorized access;

• Development of advanced cyber detection and response capabilities

For example, Visa uses AI and deep learning technology to monitor our network and understand the threats aimed at our company.

Our platform collects billions of security logs each day, providing insight across the network and within our infrastructure.

We combine this data with external intelligence on attacks observed outside of our data centers and network.

Using machine learning tools, we focus on the events that appear to pose a risk, enabling our cybersecurity team to intervene.

We operate this platform globally, with teams in multiple time zones detecting and responding 24x7x365.

In recognition of our strength among clients and consumers, the Visa brand consistently ranks highly in external brand studies, including #1 on Forbes World’s Best Regarded Companies (2019), #5 on BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands (2020), Forbes World’s Most Valuable Brands and Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, among others.

Visa’s brand strength helps deliver added value to our clients and their customers, financial institutions, merchants and partners through compelling brand expressions, a wide range of products and services and innovative brand and marketing efforts.

In line with our commitment to an expansive and diverse range of partnerships for the benefit of all our stakeholders, Visa sponsors FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee and the National Football League.

Visa is the only brand in the world that is a premier sponsor of all of these properties and also is the most active sponsor of women’s football around the world.

At the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (postponed from 2020 to 2021), the Visa brand is expected to be on full display when Visa features our products and technology to bring Japan’s vision for the future of digital payments to life.

Central to our long-term strategy is attracting, developing and retaining the best talent globally with the right skills to drive our success.

In fiscal year 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our human capital management.

A large majority of our workforce worked remotely throughout the second half of 2020, and we instituted safety protocols and procedures for the essential employees who continued to work on site.

Visa committed that no employee layoffs would occur in calendar year 2020 related directly to COVID-19.

Visa’s workforce grew in 2020 at a slower pace than prior years, increasing from approximately 19,500 employees in fiscal year 2019 to approximately 20,500 employees in fiscal year 2020.

Voluntary workforce turnover (rolling 12-month attrition) was 6.3% in September 2020.

At the end of fiscal year 2020, Visa’s global workforce was 59% male and 41% female, and women represented 34% of Visa’s leadership (defined as vice president level and above).

In the U.S., ethnicity of our workforce was 38% White, 42% Asian, 11% Hispanic, 6% Black and 3% other.

leadership, the breakdown was 63% White, 19% Asian, 12% Hispanic, 4% Black and 2% other.

Our culture is underpinned by our core values, including an unwavering commitment to inclusion and diversity.

In 2020, we established goals to increase the number of employees from underrepresented groups at the vice president level and above in the U.S.

by 50 percent in three years and to increase the number of employees from underrepresented groups in the U.S.

by 50 percent in five years.

Visa’s commitment to diversity recruiting includes partnering with a number of non-profit and community organizations to support and develop a diverse talent pipeline.

For example, Visa established the Black Scholars and Job program, a $10 million fund to create a dedicated Visa scholarship assistance program over the next five years, specifically for college-bound Black students.

Upon graduation, all recipients who have met their commitments will be guaranteed a full-time job with Visa.

and advanced cyber detection and response capabilities.

We deploy security tools that help keep our clients and consumers safe, while providing buyer and seller solutions that help make Visa the best way to pay and be paid.

We also invest significantly in our comprehensive approach to cybersecurity.

We deploy security technologies to strengthen data confidentiality, integrity and service availability, emphasizing core cybersecurity capabilities to minimize risk.

In line with our commitment to an expansive and diverse range of partnerships for the benefit of our stakeholders, Visa is the only brand in the world that is a top sponsor of FIFA, the Olympic Games, and the NFL and is one of the most active sponsors of women’s football around the world.

This year, we launched a multi-year brand initiative to spotlight the diverse capabilities of our network and our commitment to enabling global economic inclusion.

The “Meet Visa” campaign reintroduced Visa as a network working for everyone.

Attracting, developing and retaining the best talent globally is critical to our continued success.

Our workforce grew from approximately 20,500 in fiscal year 2020 to approximately 21,500 employees in fiscal year 2021.

Visa employees are located in more than 80 countries, with more than 49 percent located outside the U.S.

Voluntary workforce turnover (rolling 12-month attrition) was 9.3 percent as of September 30, 2021.

At the end of fiscal year 2021, Visa’s global workforce was 58 percent male and 42 percent female, and women represented 35 percent of Visa’s leadership (defined as vice president level and above).

In the U.S., ethnicity of our workforce was 41 percent Asian, 7 percent Black, 12 percent Hispanic, 3 percent Other and 37 percent White.

leadership, the breakdown was 20 percent Asian, 6 percent Black, 12 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Other and 59 percent White.

At Visa, we have an unwavering commitment to inclusion and diversity, and we foster an inclusive workplace to encourage diversity of thought, culture and background.

In 2020, we established “Stand Together” goals in support of social justice and racial equality in the U.S.

focused on our people, our community and our company.

We are proud of the progress we made in fiscal year 2021, including the launch of the Visa Black Scholars and Jobs Program in the U.S.

with the inaugural class of 50 Visa Black Scholars who will participate in year-round programs and training aimed at developing their professional and technical skills.

Upon graduation, all Scholars who have met their commitments will be offered a full-time job with Visa.

We have also increased the number of underrepresented employees in the U.S.

We are supporting Visa’s commitment to recruit and retain diverse talent by launching employee development programs and partnering with several non-profit and community organizations, as well as historically black colleges and a generally more diverse set of universities to develop our talent pipeline.

Visa is committed to pay equity, regardless of gender or race/ethnicity, and conducts pay equity analyses on an annual basis.

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More details regarding our human capital management, as well as enhanced workforce disclosures that include our 2020 Consolidated EEO-1 Report and our 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report can be found on our website at usa.visa.com/about-visa/esg.html .

For additional information, please see the section titled “Talent and Human Capital Management” in Visa’s 2021 Proxy Statement.

FINTECH AND DIGITAL PARTNERSHIPS

Fintechs are key enablers of new payment experiences and new flows.

Our work with fintechs has opened new points of acceptance, extended credit at the point of sale, made cross-border money flows more efficient, moved B2B spend onto Visa’s network, expedited payroll and provided digital wallet customers access to our services.

To better serve fintechs, Visa has a suite of streamlined commercial programs and digital onboarding tools.

Our Fintech Fast Track program enables qualifying fintechs to quickly launch and scale their programs.

The program has welcomed hundreds of fintechs who are actively engaged in the program.

With our startup engagement programs, the Visa Everywhere Initiative and the Inclusive Fintech 50, early-stage companies can build payment solutions based on our capabilities.

With Visa Fintech Partner Connect, a program launched globally this year, we are helping our clients tap into innovations emerging from the fintech community.

The program is designed to help financial institutions quickly connect with a vetted and curated set of technology providers, helping Visa’s issuing partners create digital-first experiences without the cost and complexity of building the back-end technology in-house.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS AND STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS

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Mergers and acquisitions and strategic investments complement our internal development and enhance our partnerships to align with Visa’s priorities.

Visa applies a rigorous integration approach to our acquisitions and investments to ensure they will differentiate our network, provide value added services and accelerate growth.

Plaid Acquisition.

In January 2020, Visa entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Plaid, a network that makes it easy for people to securely connect their financial accounts to the apps they use to manage their financial lives.

Plaid’s products enable consumers to conveniently share their financial information with thousands of apps and services.

Visa’s acquisition of Plaid represents both an entry into new businesses and complementary enhancements to Visa’s existing business.

This acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory reviews and approvals.

On November 5, 2020, the U.S.

Department of Justice filed a complaint in the U.S.

District Court for the Northern District of California seeking a permanent injunction to prevent Visa from acquiring Plaid, alleging that the proposed acquisition would substantially lessen competition in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act and would constitute monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Visa intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit.

Visa applies a rigorous business analysis to our acquisitions and investments to ensure they will differentiate our network, provide value added services and accelerate growth.

In fiscal year 2021, we acquired YellowPepper to accelerate our network of networks strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean by becoming a single point of access for initiating multiple transaction types and significantly reducing the time-to-market and cost for issuers and processors to launch card and account agnostic payments solutions.

On June 24, 2021, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tink AB (Tink), a European open banking platform that enables financial institutions, fintechs and merchants to build tailored financial management tools, products and services for European consumers and businesses based on their financial data.

On July 22, 2021, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire The Currency Cloud Group Limited (Currencycloud), a UK-based global platform that enables banks and fintechs to provide innovative foreign exchange solutions for cross-border payments.

The Tink and Currencycloud transactions are subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Environmental, Social and Governance

As a trusted brand, Visa has an opportunity and responsibility to contribute to a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable world.

We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere.

As we build business resilience and long-term value, we are committed to managing the risks and opportunities that arise from ESG issues.

We are focused on empowering people and economies;

securing commerce and protecting customers;

investing in our workforce;

protecting the planet;

and operating responsibly.

Our 2020 ESG report, which provides enhanced ESG disclosures is available on our website at usa.visa.com/about-visa/esg.html .

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

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These advances are enabling new entrants, many of which depart from traditional network payment models.

In certain countries, the evolving regulatory landscape is changing how we compete, creating local networks or enabling additional processing competition.

In certain countries, the evolving regulatory landscape is creating local networks or enabling additional processing competition.

We compete against all forms of payment.

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Global or Multi-Regional Networks:

These networks typically offer a range of branded, general purpose card payment products that can be used at millions of merchant locations around the world.

These networks typically offer a range of branded, general purpose card payment products that consumers can use at millions of merchant locations around the world.

Examples include Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB and UnionPay.

These competitors may be more concentrated in specific geographic regions, such as JCB in Japan and Discover in the U.S., or have a leading position in certain countries.

For example, UnionPay is the largest player in China, since international card networks were not allowed to process domestic transactions in China until the market started to open up with the first license approval for an international network in fiscal year 2020.

These competitors may be more concentrated in specific geographic regions, such as JCB in Japan and Discover in the U.S., or have a leading position in certain countries, such as UnionPay in China.

See Item 1A—Risk Factors—Regulatory Risks—Government-imposed obligations and/or restrictions on international payment systems may prevent us from competing against providers in certain countries, including significant markets such as China, India and Russia .

Based on available data, Visa is

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one of the largest retail electronic funds transfer networks used throughout the world.

Based on available data, Visa is one of the largest retail electronic funds transfer networks used throughout the world.

The following chart compares our network with these network competitors for calendar year 2020 (1) :

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Operated in many countries, these networks often have the support of government influence or mandate.

In some cases, they are owned by financial institutions.

In some cases, they are owned by financial institutions or payment processors.

These networks typically focus on debit payment products, and may have strong local acceptance, and recognizable brands.

Examples include STAR, NYCE, and Pulse in the U.S., Interac in Canada, EFTPOS in Australia and Mir in Russia.

Alternate Payment Providers :

These providers often have a primary focus of enabling payments through ecommerce and mobile channels, but are expanding or may expand their offerings to the physical point of sale.

Alternative Payment Providers:

These providers such as digital wallets, closed commerce ecosystems, BNPL solutions, cryptocurrency platforms, and account-to-account systems often have a primary focus of enabling payments through ecommerce and mobile channels;

however, they are expanding or may expand their offerings to the physical point of sale.

These companies may process payments using in-house account transfers between parties, electronic funds transfer networks like the ACH, global or local networks like Visa, or some combination of the foregoing.

In some cases, these entities are both a partner and a competitor to Visa.

ACH and Real Time Payment (RTP) Networks :

ACH and RTP Networks:

These networks are often governed by local regulations.

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For example, as a result of regulation in Europe under the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR), we may face competition from other networks, processors and other third parties who could process Visa transactions directly with issuers and acquirers.

We believe our fundamental value proposition of acceptance, security, convenience, speed and reliability offers us a key competitive advantage.

We succeed in part because we understand the needs of the individual markets in which we operate and partner with local financial institutions, merchants, fintechs, governments, non-governmental organizations and business organizations to provide tailored solutions.

We believe Visa is well-positioned competitively due to our global brand, our broad set of Visa-branded payment products, and our proven track record of processing payment transactions securely and reliably through VisaNet.

SEASONALITY AND OTHER

We generally do not experience any pronounced seasonality in our business.

No individual quarter of fiscal year 2020 or fiscal year 2019 accounted for more than 30 percent of our net revenues in those years.

In fiscal year 2020, we had two clients that accounted for 11% and 10% of our total net revenues, respectively.

We believe this is the result of an unprecedented shift in revenue mix, including the decline in cross-border revenue as a result of the pandemic.

In fiscal year 2019 and 2018, no client generated greater than 10% of our total net revenues .

WORKING CAPITAL

Payments settlement due to and from our financial institution clients can represent a substantial daily working capital requirement.

dollar settlements are settled within the same day and do not result in a receivable or payable balance, while settlement in currencies other than the U.S.

dollar generally remain outstanding for one to two business days, which is consistent with industry practice for such transactions.

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Value Added Products and Service Providers:

We face competition from companies that provide alternatives to our value added products and services, including information services and consulting firms that provide consulting services and insights to financial institutions, merchants and governments and technology companies that provide cyber and fraud solutions.

Regulatory initiatives could also lead to increased competition in this space.

We believe our fundamental value proposition of security, convenience, speed and reliability as well as the number of credentials and our acceptance footprint help us to succeed.

In addition, we understand the needs of the individual markets in which we operate and partner with local financial institutions, merchants, fintechs, governments, NGOs and business organizations to provide tailored and innovative solutions.

Our network of networks strategy implies that we have and we will continue to utilize other networks to facilitate the movement of money.

We believe Visa is well-positioned competitively due to our global brand, our broad set of payment products and value added services, and our proven track record of processing payment transactions securely and reliably.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION

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Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the UK Bribery Act and other laws that generally prohibit the making or offering of improper payments to foreign government officials and political figures for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business or to gain an unfair business advantage.

We are also subject to anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws and regulations, including the U.S.

subject to anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws and regulations, including the U.S.

Bank Secrecy Act.

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Government-Imposed Market Participation Restrictions:

Certain governments, including China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam, have taken actions to promote domestic payments systems and/or certain issuers, payments networks or processors, by imposing regulations that favor domestic providers, impose local ownership requirements on processors, require data localization or mandate domestic processing be done in that country.

Interchange Rates and Fees:

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Internet Transactions:

Many jurisdictions have adopted regulations that require payments system participants to monitor, identify, filter, restrict or take other actions with regard to certain types of payment transactions on the Internet, such as gambling and the purchase of cigarettes or alcohol.

Many jurisdictions have adopted regulations that require payment system participants to monitor, identify, filter, restrict or take other actions with regard to certain types of payment transactions on the Internet, such as gambling, digital currencies, the purchase of cigarettes or alcohol and other controversial transaction types.

Network Exclusivity and Routing:

In the U.S., the Dodd-Frank Act limits network exclusivity and preferred routing arrangements for the debit and prepaid market segments.

In the U.S., the Dodd-Frank Act limits network exclusivity and restrictions on merchant routing choice for the debit and prepaid market segments.

Other jurisdictions impose similar limitations, such as the IFR’s prohibition in Europe on restrictions that prevent multiple payment brands or functionality on the same card.

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Visa also may be separately examined by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection as a service provider to the banks that issue Visa-branded consumer credit and debit card products.

Central banks in other countries/regions, including Europe, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom (as discussed below), have recognized or designated Visa as a retail payment system under various types of financial stability regulations.

Central banks in other countries/regions, including Europe, India, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom (as discussed below), have recognized or designated Visa as a retail payment system under various types of financial stability regulations.

Visa is also subject to oversight by banking and financial sector authorities in other jurisdictions, such as Brazil and Hong Kong.

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European and United Kingdom Regulations and Supervisory Oversight:

Visa in Europe continues to be subject to complex and evolving regulation in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Visa Europe is designated as a Recognized Payment System in the United Kingdom, bringing it within the scope of the Bank of England’s supervisory powers and subject to various requirements, including on issues such as governance and risk management designed to maintain the stability of the United Kingdom’s financial system.

Visa Europe is also subject to the European Central Bank’s oversight, whose main focus is on the smooth operation of payment systems in the Euro area, including the security, operational reliability and business continuity of payment systems.

Furthermore, Visa Europe is regulated by the United Kingdom’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), which has wide-ranging powers and authority to review our business practices, systems, rules and fees with respect to promoting competition and innovation in the United Kingdom, and ensuring payments meet account holder needs.

The PSR is also the regulator responsible for monitoring Visa Europe’s compliance with the IFR in the United Kingdom.

The IFR regulates interchange rates within Europe, requires Visa Europe to separate its payment card scheme activities from processing activities for accounting, organization, and decision-making purposes within the EU and imposes limitations on network exclusivity and routing.

Visa in Europe continues to be subject to complex and evolving regulation in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (EEA).

Specifically, in the United Kingdom, Visa Europe is designated as a Recognized Payment System, bringing it within the scope of the Bank of England’s supervisory powers and subject to various requirements, including on issues such as governance and risk management designed to maintain the stability of the United Kingdom’s financial system.

Visa Europe is also regulated by the United Kingdom’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), which has wide-ranging powers and authority to review our business practices, systems, rules and fees with respect to promoting competition and innovation in the United Kingdom, and ensuring payments meet account holder needs.

Furthermore, there are a number of EU regulations that impact our business.

As discussed above, the IFR regulates interchange rates within Europe, requires Visa Europe to separate its payment card scheme activities from processing activities for accounting, organization, and decision-making purposes within the EU and imposes limitations on network exclusivity and routing.

National competent authorities in the EU are responsible for monitoring and enforcing the IFR in their markets.

There are other regulations in the European Union that impact our business, as discussed above, including regulations governing privacy and data protection, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism and sanctions.

We are also subject to regulations governing privacy and data protection, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism and sanctions.

Other regulations in Europe, such as the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), require, among other things, that our financial institution clients provide certain customer account access rights to emerging non-financial institution players.

PSD2 also includes strong customer authentication requirements for certain transactions that could impose both operational complexity on Visa and negatively impact consumer payment experiences.

As discussed in Item 1A — Risk Factors — Business Risks — The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union could harm our business and financial results, and Brexit could lead to further legal and regulatory complexity in Europe.

Post-Brexit, the United Kingdom has adopted various European regulations, including regulations that impact the payments ecosystem such as the IFR and PSD2.

The PSR is responsible for monitoring Visa Europe’s compliance with the IFR as adopted in the United Kingdom.

ESG and Sustainability:

Certain governments around the world are adopting laws and regulations pertaining to ESG performance, transparency and reporting.

Regulations may include mandated corporate reporting on ESG overall (e.g., EU Sustainable Reporting Directive) or in individual areas such as mandated reporting on climate-related financial disclosures.

Additional Regulatory Developments:

Various regulatory agencies across the world also continue to examine a wide variety of other issues, including mobile payment transactions, tokenization, access rights for non-financial institutions, money transfer, identity theft, account management guidelines, disclosure rules, security and marketing that could affect our financial institution clients and us.

Furthermore, following the passage of PSD2 in Europe, several countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and Mexico, are contemplating granting or have already granted various types of access rights to third-party processors, including access to consumer account data maintained by our financial institution clients, which could have negative implications for our business depending on how the regulations are framed and implemented.

Various regulatory agencies across the world also continue to examine a wide variety of other issues, including mobile payment transactions, tokenization, access rights for non-financial institutions, money transfer services, identity theft, account management guidelines, disclosure rules, security and marketing that could affect our financial institution clients and our business.

Furthermore, following the passage of PSD2 in Europe, several countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and Mexico, are contemplating granting or have already granted various types of access rights to third party processors, including access to consumer account data maintained by our financial institution clients.

These changes could have negative implications for our business depending on how the regulations are framed and implemented.

AVAILABLE INFORMATION

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Our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to the U.S.

Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, can be viewed at http://www.sec.gov and our investor relations website at http://investor.visa.com as soon as reasonably practicable after these materials are electronically filed with or furnished to the U.S.

Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, can be viewed at www.sec.gov and our investor relations website at investor.visa.com as soon as reasonably practicable after these materials are electronically filed with or furnished to the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In addition, we routinely post financial and other information, which could be deemed to be material to investors, on our investor relations website.

Information regarding our corporate responsibility and sustainability initiatives are also available on our website at http://www.visa.com/responsibility .

Information regarding our ESG, corporate responsibility and sustainability initiatives is also available on our website at usa.visa.com/about-visa/esg.html.

The content of any of our websites referred to in this report is not incorporated by reference into this report or any other filings with the SEC.

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business