VISA World

Dee Hock, founder and CEO of VISA Corporation, describes the rise and size of the company: “In 1968 the VISA community was no more than a set of beliefs and a vague concept. In 1970 it was born. Today, twenty-nine years later, its products are created by 22,000 owner-member financial institutions and accepted at 15 million merchant locations in more than 200 countries and territories. Three-quarters of a bllion people use VISA products and make 14 billion transactions producing annual volume of $1.25 trillion – the single largest block of consumer purchasing power in the global economy. VISA has grown a minimum of 20 percent and as much as 50 percent compounded annually for three decades, thought the best and worst of times, with no end in sight.”