• Visa in Europe

    Learn more about our business in Europe.

  • Visa in Europe

    Learn more about our business in Europe.

  • Visa in Europe

    Learn more about our business in Europe.

  • Visa in Europe

    Learn more about our business in Europe.

Visa retains an effective decision-making body in Europe through a revised Visa Europe Board that reflects our new structure as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Visa Inc. and as a Bank of England designated entity.

The role of the Visa Europe Board includes approving the budget for Visa in Europe, tailoring Visa Inc. strategy for the European region and deciding on matters referred to it by the Visa Europe Executive Leadership Team.

The CEO is responsible to the Board for the day-to-day management of the European Business, supported by her leadership team and a management committee.

Reporting lines with the European business balance the needs of both the regional operating model and the global regional structure, with matrix reporting lines in place for central service functions.

 

Charlotte Hogg is Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer for Visa’s European operations.

Charlotte brings more than 25 years of experience in financial services, bank operations and management consulting to Visa. Most recently served as Chief Operating Officer for the Bank of England, from 2013 to 2017. Prior to that role, she led retail distribution for Santander in the UK and previously worked at Experian as the managing director of U.K. and Irish operations.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Hogg was a managing director for strategy and planning at Morgan Stanley, and a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, based in the U.S.

Ms. Hogg graduated from the University of Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and History. She is a Kennedy Memorial Trust Scholar from Harvard University, and has an honorary Doctor of Laws from Warwick University.

 

Debbie is currently the Non-Executive Chair of Visa Europe Limited, The Restaurant Group plc, BGL (Holdings) Ltd., and White Stuff Limited.

Her executive career was spent at RAC plc where she was Group Managing Director and prior to that she was in retail management with Marks & Spencer. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and was awarded the MBE for services to Business and the Public Sector in 2011.

 

Aki has over 20 years of professional experience in banking, insurance and accounting. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Hiscox plc and sits on the boards of seven entities in the Hiscox Group. Prior to joining Hiscox, Aki was the Chief Financial Officer of Prudential plc. Aki also held a number of senior roles in the financial services, telecoms and media sectors. He was Finance Director for the Consumer Bank division at Lloyds Banking Group, before which he was Finance Director for the Consumer division of NTL (now Virgin Media).

Aki is also a Chartered Accountant, having trained with KPMG. Aki has a BA degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Leeds and an ACA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

 

Rob Livingston is Chief Financial Officer for Visa Europe. In this role, he oversees Visa’s financial strategies, planning and reporting, in addition to all finance operations and corporate real estate in Europe. He is based in London.

Prior to this role, Mr. Livingston was SVP for Strategic Initiatives in Beijing. From 2013-2017, he was Visa’s Country Manager for Canada, where he oversaw the strategic direction, key relationships, marketing, operations and financial performance of Visa’s Canadian business.

Before joining Visa in 2013, Mr. Livingston worked at Capital One for 18 years in the US, UK, France and Canada, most recently as President of Capital One Canada.

Mr. Livingston is Past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Canada. He received his degree in Economics from Yale University.

 

Prior to her retirement, Ellen Richey was the Vice Chairman, Risk and Public Policy of Visa Inc. Prior to this role, Ms. Richey served as the Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer from January 2014 until September 2014 and Chief Enterprise Risk Officer from October 2007 until September 2014. Previously, Ms. Richey served as the Senior Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management and Executive Vice President of Card Services at Washington Mutual Inc., a financial institution, from October 2005 until June 2006.

Ms. Richey was a member of the board of directors of Monitise plc from October 2012 until September 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School.

 

William Sheedy leads Visa’s corporate strategy and mergers and acquisition efforts, global policy and government relations, and oversees strategic initiatives for the company.

Previous roles have included Group President, Americas, and oversight of Visa's business in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, across nearly 50 countries. Previously, Bill served as President of the company’s North America region. He also played a leadership role in managing Visa’s corporate restructuring that merged multiple regional Visa entities into a single global company, culminating in Visa's successful initial public offering in 2008. Earlier in his career, Sheedy managed Visa’s U.S. pricing and economics strategies.

He joined the company in 1993 as an executive in Visa’s strategy and pricing division. Sheedy holds a B.S. from West Virginia University and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

 

Philippe Tromp has 30 years of experience in International Capital Markets, Securitisation and Infrastructure Finance, Market Infrastructure, and Insurance, starting his career in Investment Banking at PaineWebber Inc. and Bankers Trust Co. He later became Head of the international operations of Financial Security Assurance, the monoline financial guarantee insurance company, a position he held for 16 years.

More recently, Philippe led a start-up behind the development of a multi-dealer web-based Request-For-Quote (RFQ) and trade capture platform providing efficient price discovery in the credit derivatives market. He is currently a Member of the Senior Advisory Board of Solum Financial, a Risk Management advisory boutique, a Non-Executive Director of Euroclear UK and Ireland, the Central Securities Depository, and a Non-Executive Director of AIG Europe Limited where he chairs the Audit Committee.

Philippe holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a graduate of Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines with a major in Solid State Physics.

The European Commission announced new regulations designed to safeguard consumer financial data. New regulations require an additional security step for some online purchases. More purchases will require the added layer of security known as two-factor authentication for consumers to confirm their identity.

 

Self-assessment

In December 2019, Visa Europe published its updated self-assessment against the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI). The point of the assessment is 30 December 2019.

The PFMIs are internationally agreed standards published by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in April 2012. They are a part of a set of standards that the international community considers essential to strengthening and preserving financial stability.

Visa Europe as a Recognised Payment System has undertaken the self-assessment against the principles that apply to payment systems.

You can download a PDF version of the document here.

 

Visa Rules

Visa Europe Operating Regulations

The previously published broad Visa Europe Operating Regulations have been retired. The new public version of the Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules (which relate to Scheme) can be downloaded here.

To request a copy of the rules relating to Processing, please email [email protected].

Helping people and businesses in our markets to prosper in a global economy.

As a trusted brand in payments, Visa has a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to use our business to connect the world— enabling economic growth and strengthening economies while also helping improve lives and create a better world.

 

UK Modern Slavery Act statement

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

UK Tax Strategy

Visa is a global payments technology company that enables fast, secure and reliable electronic payments across more than 200 countries and territories. We facilitate global commerce through the transfer of value and information among a global network of consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, strategic partners, and government entities.

Paragraph 16(2), Schedule 19, Finance Act 2016 requires Visa to set out the tax strategy of its UK companies and this is detailed below. This strategy covers all taxes and applies from the date of publication until it is superseded.

Read Visa’s UK Tax Strategy

UK Pension Scheme

In the UK, Visa works collaboratively with the trustees of the two UK pension schemes, to ensure in particular that all legal obligations and good governance are followed. As the Visa Europe Pension Plan has a section where the paid contributions are defined, there is a legal requirement to issue an annual statement regarding the governance of the plan’s defined contribution sections.

The chair of the trustees of the Visa Europe Pension Plan, Peter Gibbs, has provided this statement for the period ending 30 September 2018.

Read Visa Europe Pension Plan Chairman’s Statement

In addition, there is also a requirement to issue the Statement of Investment Principles for the Visa Europe Pension Plan, which sets out the trustees’ investment strategy and their policy on environmental, social and corporate governance factors.

Read Visa Europe Pension Plan’s Statement of Investment Principles dated 19 September 2019.

Visa believes that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace irrespective of race, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, belief, sex, sexual orientation, sexual identity including gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity, age, disability, marriage and civil partnership, and/or any characteristics protected in any of our markets.

UK Gender Pay Reporting

Our commitment is not purely based on a strong ethical stance, but also because we value and respect the diversity of our customers, consumers, suppliers, partners, communities and the individualism that every employee brings to our company.

Read our 2018 UK Gender Pay Gap Report

Women in Finance Charter

In our mission to be an inclusive and fairly represented organisation, last year Visa in Europe signed the Women in Finance Charter. The Charter reflects the UK government’s aspiration to see gender balance at all levels across financial services firms.

  • When we signed up to the Charter in September 2018, we had 34% of women in senior management roles, we are proud to say that we have now achieved 36.6%, meeting our target for this year. By 30 September 2021, we aspire to have 38% of women in senior management roles.

  • We have also achieved our target of 38% females across Europe, increasing from 36.4% in 2018 to 39.2% in September 2019.

Going forward, we have developed programmes to help us achieve gender balance across all levels of the organisation.

Read our Women in Finance Charter Report

Learn about our Visa business in Europe, including the corporate structure, key policy and regulation provisions, and corporate responsibility measures.

Under this arrangement, we will separately compete for scheme and processing business, while continuing to meet the changing demands of a global marketplace.

Our Code of Conduct helps us understand our roles and responsibilities in the context of this structure, no matter which area of Visa we are part of. It helps ensure individual and organisational compliance as we continue to deliver new and exciting products and services quickly and at scale.

Working at Visa means being committed to doing the right thing for our customers, and as we work towards creating a single, global Visa, this focus will remain. The Code of Conduct provides a clear framework for employees, to help us navigate this transition while continuing to provide a reliable service based on international acceptance and security.

Visa partners with its customers in Europe – banks and payment providers – to enable payments and associated services. Our focus is on providing global, competitive and innovative solutions that meet the needs of our customers. This in turn brings tangible benefits to their customers - enabling merchants to grow their businesses and enabling consumers to pay where and when they choose, and on any device.

Visa Europe Limited (Visa) operates separate management bodies for the management of Scheme and Processing.

In line with its obligations under Article 16(1) of the Regulatory Technical Standard (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/72) of 4 October 2017) (‘RTS’) and without prejudice to the exemption of shared services referred to in Article 12 of the RTS, Visa has set out the following clear and objective criteria to ensure that the composition of its management bodies mitigates any conflicts of interest for the decision making process between Scheme and Processing:

  • Any Scheme and Processing management body is constituted with a defined mandate that ensures compliance with Visa’s Separation of Scheme and Processing Code of Conduct (including the protection of sensitive information and other conduct obligations to mitigate any conflicts of interest).
  • Members of the relevant management bodies of each of Scheme and Processing will at all times be subject to conflicts of interest policies

Any circumstances where directorships may be held by the same person at the same time in the management body of Scheme and Processing will be objectively justified and restricted to the minimum necessary to address a specific need or purpose. An example of circumstances where it may be necessary would be for regulatory, prudential or other risk based oversight.