21,000 Member partners.
1,000,000,000 potential ways to pay.
1 unique individual at the heart of every transaction.

Visa
2001 Annual Report

Welcome to commerce the way it’s supposed to be.

Have you noticed that this time, the revolution in commerce is starting to feel real?

Technology is undeniably pervasive. Buyers and sellers are becoming increasingly mobile — and connected. Soon, with the continuing explosion of wireless devices, more than a billion payment devices will exist in the global marketplace.

Behind all of these far-reaching changes are electronic payment products — the foundation for creating remarkable new ways of exchanging services for value.

At Visa, we are building on our long heritage of leadership and innovation in payment systems to enable these new ways to conduct commerce. Ways that extend our solutions into emerging markets that provide value for Members, consumers, and businesses alike — from micropayments to large, business-to-business transactions. And all performed conveniently, securely, and simply.

Most importantly, our initiatives empower Visa’s 21,000 Member financial institutions to realize unprecedented levels of achievement, by helping them create stronger customer relationships. Build new revenue streams, and cost-efficient processes. And secure a leadership position in the 21st century economy.

It’s commerce the way it’s supposed to be.

Anywhere.

Boundaries? What boundaries? Today, the landscape of commerce is one of unlimited possibility, in any and every direction imaginable.

We are rapidly evolving from the point of sale to the point of convenience — delivering payment solutions to buyers and sellers wherever they are.

There was a time, after all, when using a Visa card meant conducting a face-to-face transaction at a merchant’s place of business. Innovations in payment Services — pioneered by Visa — led to mail and telephone ordering, which gave customers the flexibility to use their cards without having to be at a store. Today, the power of the Internet frees long-distance buyers from having to be on the phone, although they still have to be on their computers.

Unless, of course, they’re on their TVs. Or cell phones. Or handheld devices.

But removing virtually all the physical limitations on consumer transactions is not Visa’s only breakthrough. Today, the power of Visa is also transforming a multitude of essential business-to-business services. Services, for example, that simplify the logistics of making large transactions over the Internet. And that allow distributors to replace cash, customer credit, and promissory notes with card-based payments.

Wherever they happen to be.

Transformation.

It started off as just a simple plastic card. And yet behind that little card was one of the biggest ideas of the 20th century: a global, cashless payment system.

Like other powerful ideas of the past hundred years — the airplane, television, computers — Visa’s vision of commerce has changed the way we live our lives.

And now, at the dawn of the millennium, we are working together with our Members to help drive the transformation to the new, Smart Economy: a transformation that will once again define how we live our lives in the decades, and the century, ahead.

A change of this magnitude will take more than just the efforts of a technology company or an information systems consultancy; it will require the specialized expertise of a provider that truly understands a payments system as the bloodstream of our economy.

And that means not just any payments provider: it means one that has been the leader in its industry for nearly a half century. That has, while staying true to its values, continually evolved — from startup to corporation to driver of social change.

One that empowers its Members — and individuals all over the world — to make things happen.

One that is Visa.