Visa Inc. began as BankAmericard in 1958. Bank of America launched the credit-card program in Fresno, California, creating one of the earliest widely distributed general-purpose credit cards.
The program expanded through licensing arrangements with banks outside California. In 1976, participating institutions adopted the international Visa name, creating a brand that could operate independently of Bank of America’s original regional identity. Visa Inc. later became a publicly traded company through its 2008 initial public offering.
Visa is a payments network rather than a traditional bank that generally lends directly to cardholders. Banks and other financial institutions issue Visa-branded cards, while Visa provides network infrastructure for authorizing and settling transactions. This distinction helps explain why Visa’s business model differs from that of a commercial bank.