(China) – Global payments giant Visa has signed an agreement with the International Olympic Games Committee to become the sole service supplier of paycard and office payment for the next eight years.The agreement will cover the 2004 Athens games, and extend to Beijing in 2008.
Visa’s growing Chinese operations currently include 17 member financial institutions, 16 of which issue domestic Visa cards, while 5 issue international cards.
The number of international Visa cards is expected to increase by 100 percent each year for the next few years in China.
Goldman Sachs estimates that Beijing’s tourism sector will earn the equivalent of US$60 billion. As the global sole pay card of the Olympics, Visa is in line for major revenues from China.