Amex and Discover, as someone else pointed out, are their own banks too-so they are both running the payment network layer for their cards. Or they are at least

Amex and Discover, as someone else pointed out, are their own banks too-so they are both running the payment network layer for their cards. Or they are at least at the final point; I have no idea whether there’s some blended payment layer/network that can also handle their cards, but since the article says that sometimes Visa cards aren’t processed over their network it stands to reason. It’s still the “bank” (or credit union-a better choice, but I digress) issuing you a credit line; they’re also the ones on the hook if you don’t pay. Visa pretty much has nothing to gain by securitization, unless they want into the reinsurance industry. They just want to be paid any time their payment processing network is used or when a card with their logo on it is used.