Visa International is changing its logo, redesigning its cards, and enhancing card security features.
The changes, announced Tuesday, will increase the cost of issuing a Visa card by roughly 2 cents a card.
The San Francisco company's new logo, which eliminates the yellow and blue bands around the word "Visa," will be more "future oriented" than the current brand, according to Jim Taschetta, a Visa senior vice president. "It takes up less real estate and allows bank members to use up more of the space for their design."
In addition, the traditional Visa hologram will be moved to the back of the card and embedded into the magnetic stripe, to open up space on the front of the card. Visa hopes that this change will reduce the amount of fraud cases associated with the card, Mr. Taschetta said.
"We have talked to our major issuers and they view this as a win, because the potential fraud reduction would offset the costs," he said.
The new design will be available in the fall, and the rollout is being predicated on banks' reissuance cycles, Mr. Taschetta said. Though Visa will not require banks to reissue cards, it will require all new cards issued by mid-2006 to include the new design and security features.
Visa will publish guidelines for the use of the new logo during the spring and will educate issuers, vendors, and consumers on its use over the summer. According to Mr. Taschetta, marketing materials such as stadium signs will be the first items to be changed.
Other changes: The word "debit" will be moved below the account number on Visa debit cards, to increase the amount of branding space on the card's face, and banks will be able to customize the signature panel on the back.
Finally, the three-digit security code will be moved off the signature panel and on to the card itself, to ensure that it is not worn off over time.
Mr. Taschetta would not say how much the changes would cost Visa, except to say they would generate a "reasonable" additional cost for his company.
