Visa Announces Corporate Responsibility Program

Visa Inc. has announced its first corporate responsibility program at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) mid-year meeting, where Visa was recognized as the first CGI "commitment to action" of 2008.

The program, Visa's first as a public company, has two areas of emphasis:

• Humanitarian Aid: Visa is committed to working with leading humanitarian aid organizations that have the expertise and ability to help individuals in vulnerable communities around the world, including in cases involving disaster relief efforts.
• Long-Term Poverty Alleviation: At the core of Visa's CSR commitment is a focus on combating poverty by fostering greater economic self-sufficiency among low-income individuals and communities. Visa is combining its payments expertise, historic commitment to financial literacy and focused philanthropic efforts to bring more people into the formal banking system and support entrepreneurship and small business development.

 Joseph W. Saunders, Chairman and CEO, Visa Inc., said, "Visa and its employees have a deeply rooted concern for the well-being and advancement of all human beings. Although global poverty is a massive issue that Visa cannot conquer alone, we believe that by focusing our philanthropy and expertise in electronic payments toward expanding opportunity to those in need, we can make a meaningful contribution to tackling this global challenge."

Saunders added, "We recognize that public ownership comes with a greater responsibility to corporate citizenship. Being a corporate responsibility leader is a critical part of the new Visa, and we are delighted to have this chance to build a program from the ground up and 'go public' with our CSR program at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. We look forward to a productive relationship with CGI, which shares our commitment to finding innovative solutions to address poverty and other significant global challenges."