V

Visa does not issue cards and does not lend money. It runs the network that authorises and settles transactions between banks, merchants and you, and takes a sliver of every crossing. Five billion payment credentials, 175 million acceptance points, more than 200 countries. It is a position nobody can buy: a rival would need to sign up thousands of banks, millions of merchants and billions of cardholders simultaneously, each refusing to arrive before the others. Visa solved that chicken-and-egg problem over four decades.

The fiscal 2025 numbers: $24.0B of operating income, net margin around 50%, processed transactions up 10% and cross-border volume up 13%. Value-added services grew 24% to $10.9B — the line we watch hardest, because it sells more into transactions the company already owns.

What worries us is not competition, it is the state. Regulators in several countries are taking an interest in network fees, and some are building national switches. Real-time account-to-account rails route around the card entirely. We accept that risk because it is slow and visible. We would not accept it if it were abrupt.