General information

"The Visa card was launched in 1976 and the card was derived from the earlier BankAmericard issued by the Bank of America. Internationally, BankAmericard was known by other names prior to the introduction of the Visa brand for the network. The blue-white-gold motif used by BankAmericard was also used for these cards.

* In Canada, an alliance of banks (including Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada, Banque Canadienne Nationale and Bank of Nova Scotia) issued credit cards under the Chargex name from 1968 to 1977.
* In France, it was known as Carte Bleue (Blue Card). The logo still appears on many French-issued VISA cards today.
* In the UK, the only BankAmericard issuer for some years was Barclaycard.

The term Visa was conceived by the company's founder, Dee Hock. He believed that the word was instantly recognizable in many languages in many countries, and that it also denoted universal acceptance. Nowadays, the term VISA has become a recursive backronym for Visa International Service Association."
From Wikipedia.org