> Visa is unusual in that it is a organization of competitors who need to cooperate on some standards for the system to work. The Visa model would be a useful m

> Visa is unusual in that it is a organization of competitors who need to cooperate on some standards for the system to work. The Visa model would be a useful model for Internet governance. Experience suggests this doesn't work so well in practise. An example: Visa are beholden to their members for funding and the largest members hold disproportionate power. Barclaycard in the UK is one such member and routinely prevent Visa from adopting new standards, or marketing on behalf of the entire group, for fear that it would weaken the dominance of Barclaycard in the UK. Which is why, for UK readers, you never see Visa advertising and only ever see bank/lender advertising... whereas elsewhere in Europe you'll see Visa advertising directly (for the benefit of all members). The structure that they have has contributed to holding the industry back as a whole, almost as much as it pushed things forward in the early days.