Visa's payment card was originally called BankAmericard.
Bank of America launched BankAmericard in California in 1958. It was one of the first general-purpose credit cards, allowing customers to carry balances rather than paying the full amount immediately. The program later expanded through licensed banks across the United States and internationally.
In 1976, the participating banks adopted the name Visa. The new name was intended to work across languages and avoid tying the network to a single bank or country. Visa Inc. eventually became a publicly traded global payments company, processing transactions between cardholders, merchants and financial institutions.
BankAmericard is sometimes confused with Mastercard's earlier name, Master Charge. They were competing card networks with different origins. Visa does not generally issue cards directly; banks and other financial institutions issue Visa-branded cards through the network.