Visa Announces Global Restructuring, Plans to Go Public

Visa announced today that it intends to restructure its organization in order to create a new public global corporation called Visa Inc. As a part of this restructuring, Visa Europe will remain a membership association, owned and governed by its European member banks, and become a licensee of Visa Inc. Visa expects the proposed restructuring will best position the company to meet the evolving needs of its customers and will accelerate its growth by improving organizational efficiency, addressing certain legal claims that exist in some markets, and increasing access to capital.


“This is a great time in Visa’s history to make this transition – we continue to be a leader in the payments industry, our growth and emerging market strategies are succeeding, and the growth potential in the global payments industry is tremendous,” said William I. Campbell, chairman of the Visa International Board of Directors. “We expect that the new structure will accelerate Visa’s growth and position us to better serve our financial institutions and merchants.”


Under the proposed restructuring, Visa Inc. will be created through a series of mergers involving Visa Canada, Visa USA and Visa International, which includes the operating regions of Asia Pacific; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. The reorganization will result in a new stock corporation owned by Visa members. After the mergers are complete, the global corporation intends to begin the IPO process and list its shares on a major stock exchange. It is expected that a majority of the shares in the reorganized company will be sold to the public.

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