Operating responsibly ⁠— Leading by example

Promoting corporate responsibility and transparency for a successful business environment. Learn more in Visa's 2019 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report.

Download the report

Governance + ethics

We believe the trust of investors, cardholders, merchants and financial institution clients needs to be earned. That’s why Visa commits to the highest standards of professional and personal conduct and always seeks to act with openness and transparency. We have implemented a robust governance structure, and we regularly monitor our corporate governance policies and practices to ensure we meet or exceed the requirements of applicable laws, regulations and rules, the NYSE's listing standards and the expectations of our investors.

Visa's corporate governance framework, including our Corporate Governance guidelines exemplifies our commitment to these standards.

Key components include:

  • Our Board of Directors is comprised entirely of independent directors (other than our CEO), as are the key committees of the Board (Compensation, Audit and Risk, and Governance);
  • Each director is elected annually by our shareholders
  • Independent directors meet regularly in executive sessions;
  • Committee chairs are generally rotated at least once every 5 years;
  • The Board and each Committee conduct annual self-evaluations and peer reviews, and our Board is actively engaged in succession planning at the Board and management levels
  • The charters of the Board's committees clearly establish the roles and responsibilities of each of the committees

Visa also has a comprehensive Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for how we conduct everyday business activities around the world. The Code applies to all directors, officers, employees and contingent staff, and covers a wide range of business practices and standards. The Code requires personnel to engage in honest and ethical conduct in performing their duties, details guidelines for how we ethically handle actual or apparent conflicts of interest between personal and professional relationships, and provides a mechanism for anyone inside or outside the company to report a suspected violation of the Code. Download Visa's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.

As a further extension of our commitment to corporate responsibility and sustainability and to seek to mitigate risk in our supply chain, Visa has adopted a new Supplier Code of Conduct to articulate our expectations to those who provide us with goods and/or services. The Code goes beyond compliance with local law and is based upon universal principles that align with Visa’s values globally. The Code outlines our expectations of our suppliers in areas including human rights, employment practices, environmental impact, supplier diversity, conflicts of interest and other areas of responsible business. Download Visa's Supplier Code of Conduct.

Visa is committed to operating responsibly and establishing high ethical standards across our company. The U.K. Modern Slavery Act of 2015 requires companies carrying on business in the U.K. to publish a statement describing steps taken to ensure modern forms of slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in the company’s business operations and supply chains. Read Visa’s Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement.

Note: Nothing in this Code or in any Visa policy prevents you from communicating directly with government agencies or law enforcement about actual or potential violations of laws or regulations. You do not need the prior permission of Visa’s Legal Department to engage in such communications, nor do you need to inform the company about such communications.

Diversity + inclusion

Our collective strength—fueled by the different backgrounds and perspectives of our employees—makes Visa a better place to work and a better business partner for our clients around the world. We believe that having an inclusive environment allows us to fully leverage the contributions of our employees, which then enriches our organization and drives Visa’s global success.

Visa’s approach to D&I involves three key areas of focus:

  • People First: Our goal at Visa is to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is reflective of the business and communities we support. We are looking for teams that bring diversity of thought, experience and backgrounds to the table at every level.
  • Environment Is Key: We are focused on fostering an inclusive organizational environment that celebrates differences and encourages unique perspectives.
  • Leaders Can Make a Difference: We are promoting cultural agility among all Visa leaders to maximize workforce engagement and ensure a more robust talent pipeline and leadership alignment and engagement.

As part of our efforts, Visa sponsors Diversity and Inclusion employee groups which support all aspects of diversity and inclusion at Visa, including employee resource groups, diversity and inclusion chapters and the allies group. The employee groups host a variety of events, including seminars, workshops and presentations to enhance awareness and understanding of diversity and inclusion as well as providing development experiences and business knowledge.

Our Supplier Diversity Program is founded on three basic operating principles:

  • Promoting business opportunities for diverse businesses and ensuring they have fair access to bid and contract opportunities.
  • Growing the amount of quality products and services we procure directly from diverse suppliers or indirectly from companies who share our commitment to diversity.
  • Communicating the value of supplier diversity, both internally and externally.

Visa continually seeks the best service, quality and value-at the best cost-by building mutually beneficial relationships with a broad and diverse supplier base.

Visa USA is committed to promoting relationships with minority-, woman-, disabled veteran-, disabled-, and lesbian-, gay-, bisexual-, and transgender-(LGBT) owned businesses, small business enterprises or enterprises located in historically underutilized business zones (HUBZones).

Learn more about Visa's diverse and inclusive workplace.

Environmental stewardship

Living up to the trust that Visa customers, shareholders, employees, and community stakeholders have placed in us means doing our part to reduce our environmental impact while also increasing efficiencies and lowering costs. As a global payments technology company with over 131 offices and data centers spread around the globe, our primary opportunity for reducing our direct environmental impacts lie in our efforts to reduce our energy and water usage, divert waste from landfills and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our facilities and operations and in how our employees travel and commute. Leveraging our global reach and ecosystem of partners, Visa has expanded our efforts to inspire and empower more sustainable living within the broader ecosystem of commerce and consumption.

Facilities and Operations

To achieve reductions in our operational footprint, Visa focuses on implementing green office initiatives at our buildings and data centers, advancing energy and water efficiency and reducing our waste to landfill. We also engage with our vendors and with our employees and other stakeholders to reduce the emissions from our operations.  

One recent milestone in our efforts is our achievement of our goal to transition to 100% renewable electricity across our global operations. We delivered on this commitment by purchasing a mix of renewable energy sources—such as solar and wind—through utilities and attribute certificates for our global operations.  As part of our leadership commitment, Visa also joined the RE100 and Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance organizations.  

Our renewable electricity achievement builds on our long-standing commitment to green buildings and efficient operations. Over 70% of our square footage is certified to a green building standard, such as U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), Greenmark or other similar standards and certifications. Visa’s new headquarters building being constructed in San Francisco will target LEED Gold or higher, as will the new regional hub office in Dubai. 

Additional environmental initiatives have included:

  • Energy efficiency through building management systems, efficient lighting and controls, HVAC upgrades and data center infrastructure improvements
  • Water efficiency, primarily focused on our data center’s use of water for cooling and on landscaping and food service use at our largest office facilities
  • Waste reduction through a robust composting and recycling program and by using environmentally preferable office supplies such as printer paper with 30 percent post-consumer recycled content
  • Transportation impact reduction through employee shuttles, public transit subsidies, EV charging, and virtual meetings

Employees

Visa employs over 20,000 people in 76 countries, and we believe that engaging and empowering our employees can be a powerful lever in our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint and can help unlock passion and innovation in our workforce. To give our employees opportunities to be more sustainable in their offices, at home and in the communities, Visa has launched a global Green Teams program, with employees leading efforts from waste reduction to environmental volunteer events to speaker events with sustainability experts. Today, more than half of Visa’s employees work in offices with an active Green Team.

Ecosystem - Impact, Insights, Verticals, Movement

As a global payments technology company, Visa’s network and expertise spans industries and touches many aspects of the payments ecosystem. We continue to expand our efforts to use our products, services, network, brand and expertise to inspire and empower a movement toward sustainable living.

Examples include: 

  • Visa partnered with GlobeScan—a sustainability research firm—to conduct a survey of consumers in 25 countries to explore current understanding, concerns, expectations and opportunities to support healthier and more sustainable lifestyles that will be good for people and the planet.
  • Visa is a founding partner of Brands For Good—an initiative to build a movement of brands working to make sustainable living more attractive, rewarding and attainable.
  • At the intersection of our focus on travel and tourism and commitment to sustainability, Visa is a founding partner of Travalyst—a global initiative to be the driving force that paves a new way to travel, helping everyone explore our world in a way that protects both people and places, and secures a positive future for destinations and local communities for generations to come.

Political engagement

Public sector decisions significantly affect our business and industry, as well as the communities in which we operate. For this reason, we participate in the political process through regular and constructive engagement with government officials and policy-makers, by encouraging the civic involvement of our employees, and by contributing to state and local candidates and political organizations where permitted by applicable law.

We are committed to conducting these activities in a manner that reflects responsible corporate citizenship and best serves the interests of our shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders. Additional information regarding our political activities and oversight may be found below and by clicking on the links on this page. Learn more about our governance structure and practices.

Oversight, Accountability, and Visa Inc. Political Participation, Lobbying and Contributions Policy

The Board of Directors of Visa Inc., acting through the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, is responsible for overseeing our lobbying activities and political contributions. The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee has approved a comprehensive Political Participation, Lobbying and Contributions Policy to:

(a) promote ethical and transparent political engagement by Visa,

(b) ensure that our political spending enhances shareholder value, and

(c) facilitate our compliance with applicable laws and reporting requirements.

Visa's Global Government Engagement Department is responsible for implementing the Policy, developing and maintaining procedures to support the Policy, and monitoring the operation and effectiveness of the Policy. Download a copy of the Policy.

Under the Policy:

  • The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee must pre-approve the use of corporate funds for political contributions, including contributions made to trade associations to support targeted political campaigns, contributions to tax exempt organizations for political activities, and contributions to organizations registered under Section 527 of the U.S. federal tax code to support political activities.
  • Visa's Global Government Engagement Department must prepare and present to the Committee an annual report itemizing our political contributions, and disclose that report on our website. As part of our annual Political Contributions report, the company will provide a list of the names all U.S. trade associations to which Visa pays annual membership dues that are $25,000 or more, and if applicable, we will disclose the portion of such dues that are used for political contributions. Links to our current and historical Annual Contributions Reports are available under the heading Political Contributions and Related Activity Disclosure below.
  • Visa's Global Government Engagement Department must also prepare and present to the Committee an annual report itemizing our lobbying expenditures, which must include information regarding our memberships in and payments to trade associations and industry groups for lobbying purposes, and tax exempt organizations that write and endorse model legislation. A list of our memberships in tax exempt organizations that write and endorse model legislation is available under the heading Lobbying below. (We also file quarterly reports disclosing our U.S. federal lobbying activities with the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Secretary of the U.S. Senate.)

Visa's Policy also prohibits our directors and employees from using company resources to promote their personal political views, causes or candidates, and specifies that the company will not directly or indirectly reimburse any personal political contributions or expenses.

Directors and employees may not lobby government officials on the company's behalf absent the pre-approval of our Government Engagement Department. As such, our lobbying and political spending seek to promote the interests of the company and its stockholders, and not the personal political preferences of our directors or employees. Consistent with applicable law, Visa will not take any adverse employment action against an employee on the basis of his or her personal political affiliation or lawful political activity.

Corporate Political Contributions and Related Activity Disclosure

Consistent with U.S. federal law, Visa Inc. does not contribute to U.S. federal candidates, national political party committees or other federal political committees. Visa Inc. may contribute to political candidates outside the U.S. in limited instances.

We make use of corporate funds for contributions to state or local candidates in the United States, where permissible and within the limits designated by state and local laws and regulations. We also make contributions to (a) certain established and recognized associations that are organized under Section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and are registered with the Federal Election Commission or an equivalent state regulator, and (b) to support or oppose state or local ballot initiatives or referendums, where doing so would advance our public policy objectives.

Each political contribution must be approved by the appropriate Government Engagement representative (state, federal or international) where the contribution is made, to ensure that it aligns with our business interests and policy goals. As part of Visa’s engagement in the political process, we seek to advance policies that expand the use of and access to electronic payments. Specific issues that are evaluated when making political contributions include a candidate’s views on a range of policies impacting the payments industry, such as payment innovation; interchange; cyber security, information sharing, and cyber threats; payment card security, data security, and data breach; privacy and data use; network brand risks; intellectual property; surcharging; payroll and prepaid cards; mobile payments; tax; international trade and market access; small business issues and financial inclusion, among others.

In selecting recipients of corporate contributions, our Government Engagement Department will consider the following factors, among others:

  • The potential contributee's views, voting record and understanding of policy issues of importance to Visa, its shareholders and other stakeholders
  • The potential contributee's reputation for integrity;
  • The potential contributee's service in a party or legislative leadership position;
  • The potential contributee's relationship to or representation of a Visa facility or a large concentration of Visa employees;
  • The extent to which the potential contributee shares Visa's legislative priorities.

All decisions regarding the recipients of political contributions in the United States are made by the Head of Government Engagement for the U.S. Decisions regarding political contributions outside of the United States are made by the Head of Government Engagement for Asia-Pacific, which is currently the only other region outside the U.S. where Visa makes corporate contributions.

In addition, under Visa's Political Participation, Lobbying and Contributions Policy, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee also must pre-approve the use of corporate funds for political contributions. To meet this requirement, our Government Engagement Department annually prepares and presents to the Committee for approval a proposed plan for corporate political giving for the year.

Government Engagement also prepares and presents to the Committee a report detailing the company's political contributions for the prior year, which must be publicly disclosed on this website.

 

Our current and historic Annual Contributions Reports are listed below:

The Annual Contributions Reports include contributions made to state or local candidates and ballot measures in the U.S., trade associations to support targeted political campaigns, organizations registered under Section 527 of the U.S. federal tax code, and political parties and business forums outside of the United States. It is Visa’s policy that this disclosure requirement applies to any payments to other tax exempt organizations engaged in advocacy (including 501(c)(3), (4), and (6) organizations) if it determines that the contribution in question was used for political activities.

We note that we do not regularly sponsor advertisements that qualify as "independent expenditures" or "electioneering communications" under the U.S. federal campaign finance laws, or make contributions to individual political candidates abroad. However, in the event we do make such contributions, they must be approved in advance by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee (as well as our Legal Department), and disclosed in our Annual Contributions Report.

Trade Associations

We belong to various trade associations in the U.S. and abroad and pay regular dues to these groups. We do not normally make additional, non-dues contributions to support such groups' political activities. However, in those instances where it is in our business interest to do so, the Government Engagement Department will obtain the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee's advance approval and disclose any such contributions in the Annual Contributions Report. As part of our annual Political Contributions report, the company will provide a list of the names of all U.S. trade associations to which Visa pays annual membership dues that are $25,000 or more, and if applicable, we will disclose the portion of such dues that are used for political contributions.

Lobbying

We endeavor to maintain a healthy and transparent relationship with governments around the world by communicating our views and concerns to elected officials and policy-makers. As an industry leader, we encounter challenges and opportunities on a wide range of policy matters at the federal, state and local levels in the United States, as well as internationally. We also seek to advance policies that expand the use of and access to electronic payments. We devote political resources to many issues that impact the payment industry, including: payment innovation; interchange; cyber security, information sharing, and cyber threats; payment card security, data security, and data breach; privacy and data use; network brand risks; intellectual property; surcharging; payroll and prepaid cards; mobile payments; tax; international trade and market access; small business issues and financial inclusion, among others.

We engage lobbyists and partner with trade associations and other organizations to assist us in responding to these challenges and opportunities, by:

  • providing access to policy-makers, political intelligence, and policy analysis;
  • monitoring legislation;
  • providing a forum for discussing important industry issues and advocating for common business interests;
  • helping ensure that we have a voice in the policy-making process, particularly on matters receiving significant support from opposing parties; and
  • advancing our global lobbying and advocacy strategies.

Our Government Engagement Department must pre-approve these engagements and lobbying activities, and regularly reviews them to ensure that they continue to best serve our business interests and objectives.

In addition, our Government Engagement Department annually prepares and presents to the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee a report regarding the company's lobbying expenditures, which includes information regarding our memberships in and payments to trade associations and industry groups for lobbying purposes, and tax exempt organizations that write and endorse model legislation. While we do not publish this report, we do file quarterly reports regarding our U.S. federal lobbying activities and expenditures with the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Secretary of the U.S. Senate, as required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 and the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2008. These reports are available by searching for "Visa" as a "Registrant" on the U.S. Senate's website.

With regard to tax exempt organizations that write and endorse model legislation, we are not currently a member of any such organization, other than The Council of State Governments. In 2019, Visa contributed $10,000 in membership dues to The Council of State Governments.

Visa Political Action Committee

In the United States, we also sponsor a federal Political Action Committee (PAC) pursuant to the Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended, and the regulations promulgated by the Federal Election Commission. The Visa PAC enables Visa employees to voluntarily pool their financial resources to support federal, state and local political candidates and organizations.

Visa PAC contributions and expenditures are publicly disclosed on government-agency websites, including the Federal Election Commission's website (www.fec.gov). In addition to the disclosure of Visa PAC contributions on government websites, interested parties may monitor our federal PAC contributions through the websites of the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Responsive Politics below:

Visit Open Secrets website
Visit Public Integrity website

The Visa PAC is governed by its board of directors, which appoints the officers of the PAC and supervises and directs the PAC's administration, solicitation campaigns, contributions, and compliance with applicable law and the PAC Bylaws.

Recipients of Visa PAC contributions are selected based upon the same criteria referenced under Political Contributions and Related Activity Disclosure above, and any other factors the Visa PAC board may develop.

Responsible data use

Visa is a brand built on trust. As a global leader in digital payments, we hold ourselves to high standards for data protection. We use data in various ways: to enable digital commerce across our network, to keep VisaNet safe and secure from cyber threats, and to protect consumers from fraud. We harness data to improve the security and value of the Visa network, better serve our clients and partners, and drive positive impact for communities and economies around the globe.

We recognize that consumers are concerned about their data, how it’s being collected and used, and whether it’s secure. Visa’s privacy commitments are reflected in our Privacy Notices and, where we market services directly to consumers, in the terms and conditions of those programs. Our unwavering commitment to data security is reflected in everything we do, from our technology and cyber defenses, to our Zero Liability promise to cardholders.

We understand that people want more than Privacy Notices and security assurances when it comes to the ways in which companies use data. To that end, we developed the following Data Values to capture, in plain language, the principles we believe should apply when companies engage with consumer data. We will use these values as a touchstone to inform Visa’s role as a leader in the payments ecosystem and when we engage in our own marketing or other programs directly with consumers. We hope these Values can serve as a “north star” to drive trust and security by bringing a “consumer first” posture to data use and privacy.

Visa’s Data Values

Security: Individuals and businesses should have confidence that Visa payment data is safe. There is no higher priority for Visa than safeguarding those who use our products, services and network.

Control: Visa will always strive to provide simple explanations regarding how data may be used and to empower individuals with easy processes to manage use of their data.

Value: Data use at Visa should benefit individuals, businesses and economies. We strive to do this by delivering greater security, financial inclusion and consumer convenience.

Fairness: Visa’s application of data and data-driven insights aims to be fair and inclusive, and avoid discrimination. Visa will strive to make our models explainable, accurate and safe.

Accountability: Visa’s approach to data use should be consistently applied at all levels of the organization and be embedded through process, training, and management responsibilities.

These principles may evolve over time based on the needs of consumers, businesses and economies, and to adapt to new privacy regulations and standards that take shape. As Visa’s business moves into new technologies, payment flows, and value-added services, we are committed to engaging with policy-makers and regulators worldwide to participate in the development and harmonization of privacy regulations and standards.