Celebrating 40 years of payments innovation

Visa has celebrated 40 years of presence in Turkiye since the launch of the first international credit card with a Visa logo in 1984. The company emphasized its contributions to the local economy, its technology transfer and investments, and the innovative payment solutions that have emerged from Turkiye. Visa’s global leaders also travelled to Turkiye to join the company’s local leadership celebrating the company’s milestone anniversary and meet with its member banks and financial institutions.

Commenting on the anniversary, Oliver Jenkyn, Group President Global Markets at Visa said: "Visa’s 40 years in Turkiye is a milestone anniversary that we are very proud of. With a young and tech-savvy population, a payments industry with constant appetite to innovate, Turkiye is an exciting country to operate in and a key market for Visa. I would like to congratulate our clients and partners on our 40 years of collaboration and innovation in shaping the future of commerce. Our journey in Turkiye continues with the same energy, dedication, and commitment as our first day and we can’t wait to see what the next decade holds.”

Samile Mümin, General Manager of Visa Turkiye, said: "Visa's 40-year journey has shaped the history of digital payments in Turkiye. From imprinter machines to POS terminals, from magnetic stripe cards to chip and PIN, from virtual to contactless cards, Visa has been instrumental in advancing the payments ecosystem and in becoming one of the driving forces of digitalization in the economy. We are looking ahead to the next decade, to continue evolving payments, ensuring trust in the ecosystem, supporting businesses and communities to thrive, and keep developing products and services to shape the future of digital commerce and money movements“.

Contribution of digital payments to economic growth

Digital payments represent a driver for economic growth and innovation, globally and in the Turkish market. During 4 decades, Visa has been partnering with Turkish financial institutions, clients and partners to support the country towards its digital journey. Digital payments are one of the key drivers of the registered economy. Research shows that the informal economy reduces when the share of digital payments in the economy increases with positive impact on economic growth and employment.

Visa contributes to the economy by enabling international money movement and tourist spend in Turkiye

Thanks to the extended card acceptance network and the international operability and payments protection brought by Visa, foreign visitors have been able to pay safely and conveniently with their Visa credentials in Turkiye for 40 years. Today, payments made with foreign Visa credentials in Turkiye bring billions of dollars worth of international spend to the country’s economy every year¹. According to the Visa Mediterranean Tourism Analysis, 2023 was a year of records in tourism in Turkiye, with a yearly increase of 20% in Visa-carded visitors, and an increase of 16% in foreign currency of tourist spend with Visa credentials. In the last 5 years between 2018 and 2023, the average spend made with foreign Visa credentials in Turkiye doubled in the Mediterranean region, while tripling by nearly 3 times in Turkiye.

Technology transfers and innovation over 40 years

Over the course of its journey in Turkiye, Visa has invested constantly in technology, bringing many innovative practices to Turkey. In 2023, the company opened a data center to deploy Visa Token Service in Turkiye allowing it to keep data on local soil². Tokens replace a cardholder's sensitive information with a unique digital identifier, providing an extra layer of security that helps reduce fraud. Since 2021, Visa started to enable access to urban mobility through contactless payments with local or international credentials, currently in almost 30 cities³ with an aim to cover more than half of the cities in the country. To support the growth of small businesses by benefiting of the advantages brought by digital commerce, Visa also introduced its Tap to Phone solution that turns smartphones into POS terminals, allowing small businesses to accept contactless payments with a simple tap. Visa also brought in 1994 its VSAT (Visa Satellite) technology to Turkiye, allowing international payments transactions to be made quickly and securely over satellite connections. In 1993, the company provided significant know-how transfer for the launch of BKM‘s switch system⁴ aiming to connect banks‘ ATM and POS networks.

In partnership with its members, Visa also brought to life many innovative solutions, some being firsts of their kind. In 2022 for example, Turkiye has seen the launch of Europe’s first Visa Signature card. In 2010, Europe’s first Visa Simply One, a single contactless card with both debit and credit functions was introduced. In 2006, Europe’s first vertical Visa card design was launched. In 1990, the first Visa Electron card in the world was issued.

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