Visa: Bitcoin and blockchain are no longer a choice for payment industry

Visa has published an article in which it claims that 2015 was the "year for payments", while making some interesting analysis of the payments landscape. In the article, Visa claims that the events of the last year mean that Bitcoin and blockchain technology are aspects that the industry has to deal with; they are not going away, and their impact will only become more pronounced. Visa also claims that Bitcoin "is no longer a choice", and that the formalisation of virtual money as a commodity, together with the potential unmasking of its creator, make "it more real than ever before". However, it also points out the need to build the public's trust in the technology, which has been lacking since its creation in 2009.

Under this arrangement, we will separately compete for scheme and processing business, while continuing to meet the changing demands of a global marketplace.

Our Code of Conduct helps us understand our roles and responsibilities in the context of this structure, no matter which area of Visa we are part of. It helps ensure individual and organisational compliance as we continue to deliver new and exciting products and services quickly and at scale.

Visa partners with its customers in Europe – banks and payment providers – to enable payments and associated services. Our focus is on providing global, competitive and innovative solutions that meet the needs of our customers. This in turn brings tangible benefits to their customers - enabling merchants to grow their businesses and enabling consumers to pay where and when they choose, and on any device.

Visa Europe Limited (Visa) operates separate management bodies for the management of Scheme and Processing.

In line with its obligations under Article 16(1) of the Regulatory Technical Standard (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/72) of 4 October 2017) (‘RTS’)1 and without prejudice to the exemption of shared services referred to in Article 12 of the RTS, Visa has set out the following clear and objective criteria to ensure that the composition of its management bodies mitigates any conflicts of interest for the decision making process between Scheme and Processing:

Any Scheme and Processing management body is constituted with a defined mandate that ensures compliance with Visa’s Separation of Scheme and Processing Code of Conduct (including the protection of sensitive information and other conduct obligations to mitigate any conflicts of interest).

Members of the relevant management bodies of each of Scheme and Processing will at all times be subject to conflicts of interest policies

Any circumstances where directorships may be held by the same person at the same time in the management body of Scheme and Processing will be objectively justified and restricted to the minimum necessary to address a specific need or purpose. An example of circumstances where it may be necessary would be for regulatory, prudential or other risk based oversight.

1 onshored in the UK by the Technical Standards (Interchange Fee Regulation) (EU Exit) Instrument 2019