Entrée: The rocky origins of visa’s debit card

Abstract

This chapter recounts the origins of Visa’s debit card, and analyzes why it took more than 20 years to become widely adopted by the member banks. Dee Hock, the founder of Visa, began talking about an “asset card” in the early 1970s, noting that it could easily replace paper checks and perhaps even cash. Visa launched their first debit card product in 1975, known as Entrée, but it was issued by only a handful of member banks. After briefly describing what Visa is and how it is structured, the chapter explains why most banks chose not to issue the Entrée card at the time, and why they eventually changed course in the early 1990s. Shortly after the card was widely issued, the Visa system began processing more debit than credit transactions, bringing it closer to Hock’s vision of a comprehensive Electronic Value Exchange system.