Visa Cards

We all use credit cards and debit cards, we find "VISA" on those.
What is this VISA???
Is it an organisation??

In 1958, the Bank of America launched its pioneering BankAmericard credit card program in Fresno, California. The product idea was that of a bank branch manager, who stopped by a local store and observed clerks in a back room preparing customers' monthly bills. It struck him as inefficient to spend so much time (and money) to prepare and collect bills that were often for paltry amounts,and he wondered if the process could be efficiently centralized, with his bank's computer preparing the bills in off-hours.

In 1970, Bank of America gave up control of the BankAmericard program. The various BankAmericard issuer banks took control of the program, creating National BankAmericard Inc. (NBI), an independent non-stock corporation which would be in charge of managing, promoting and developing the BankAmericard system within the United States, although Bank of America continued to issue and support the international licenses themselves. By 1972, licenses had been granted in 15 countries.In 1974, IBANCO, a multinational member corporation, was founded in order to manage the international BankAmericard program.

In 1976, the directors of IBANCO determined that bringing the various international networks together into a single network with a single name internationally would be in the best interests of the corporation; however in many countries, there was still reluctance to issue a card associated with Bank of America, even though the association was entirely nominal in nature. For this reason, in 1977 BankAmericard, Chargex, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, and all other licensees united under the new name, "Visa", which retained the distinctive blue, white and gold flag. NBI became Visa U.S.A., and IBANCO became Visa International.




Visa offers through its issuing members the following types of cards:
* Debit cards (pay from a checking / savings account)
* Credit cards (pay monthly payments with interest)
* Prepaid cards (pay from a cash account that has no checkwriting privileges)

Features

Even though the service is offered by thousands of banks, the end result is standardized for consumers by the Visa International Association. Two protocols are used, depending upon the type of card marketed, often called "credit" and "debit."

The debit protocol involves using the card at a point of sale terminal (POS) or automated teller machine where the PLUS or Interlink logo is shown, with a Visa card that has the PLUS or Interlink logo on the back of the card. A PIN (personal identification number, known by its acronym) is used to identify the cardholder. The money is deducted from the attached checking account or prepaid account (which is similar with no paper check-writing capability) or, more commonly, from a current account.

Bank of America is pioneer in Credit cards Program...
And Bank of America is a end-to-end client of Infosys Technologies(INDIA).
Thats what infosys is.....