Visa partners with financial institutions around the world to create payment products that meet the needs of today's global consumer through choice, convenience and control.

Choice

Visa's spectrum of payment tools is designed to meet diverse lifestyles and needs. Visa cardholders can choose to pay now using a debit card, to pay later with a credit card or pay before with a prepaid card.

Convenience

From the gas station to the grocery store to the Internet, Visa offers consumers a single global currency that works virtually anywhere, anytime. Visa cardholders enjoy greater convenience and ease of use over other forms of payment, and have the ability to use their Visa products in more than 200 countries and territories.

Control

Visa offers greater control over spending than cash, and state-of-the-art security features help safeguard cardholder funds in ways that cash or checks cannot.

Franchisor

Through the thousands of financial institutions that are MasterCard's customers, the company markets a strong portfolio of brands and products worldwide, including MasterCard, Maestro®, Cirrus® and MasterCard® PayPass™. With these, MasterCard opens the door to commerce at an unsurpassed network of more than 28.5 million acceptance locations around the world and, in many cases, guarantees payment through its system.

Processor

MasterCard's streamlined and intelligent approach to processing enables efficient commerce on a global scale. It is based on an agile network, one of the largest VPNs in the world, which offers unparalleled speed, integration, and reliability. MasterCard helps banks and merchants grow by enabling rapid adoption of new ways to pay and offering customized solutions that deliver value through technology.

Advisor

MasterCard provides industry-leading insight and solutions that advance commerce on a global scale. Using sophisticated processing and data-mining capabilities, for example, MasterCard tracks consumer behavior and buying trends around the globe and provides that knowledge to its customers. Through MasterCard Advisors, the largest global professional services firm focused exclusively on the payments industry, the company provides strategic and operational solutions covering the payments process from end to end.

Since Discover's national launch in 1986, we have continuously been a leading innovator and driver of change in the credit card industry. From the outset, Discover has worked to expand the network, which connects millions of merchant and cash access locations, as well as markets and supports a full range of credit, debit and prepaid cards, including the Discover Card.

The company's track record of pioneering accomplishments includes the introduction of cash rewards, known as "Cashback Bonus" - America's #1 Cash Rewards program, according to TNS 2008 Consumer Card Strategies Research data that shows more U.S. households have a Discover card than any other cash rewards card. Discover card was one of the earliest to offer 24/7 customer service and secure account numbers for online purchases.

BusinessWeek and Interbrand ranked American Express as the 15th most valuable brand in the world, estimating the brand to be worth US$21.94 billion. Fortune listed Amex as one of the top 30 Most Admired Companies in the World.

On November 10, 2008, during the financial crisis of 2008, the company won Federal Reserve System approval to convert to a bank holding company, making it eligible for government help under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. At that time, American Express had total consolidated assets of about $127 billion. In June 2009, $3.39 billion in TARP funds were repaid plus $74.4 million in dividend payments, and in July 2009 they ended their obligations under TARP by buying back $340 million in Treasury warrants.

• JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2 trillion.
• We operate in more than 60 countries.
• We have more than 200,000 employees.
• We serve millions of U.S. consumers and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients.
• We are a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers, small business and commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset management and private equity.
• We are a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• Our entities:
• JPMorgan Chase is the brand used by the firm's subsidiaries and our Community Development Group.

Headquartered in London, HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world. HSBC's international network comprises around 8,500 offices in 86 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.

With listings on the London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Bermuda stock exchanges, shares in HSBC Holdings plc are held by around 220,000 shareholders in 119 countries and territories. The shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American Depositary Receipts.

Through an international network linked by advanced technology, including a rapidly growing e-commerce capability, HSBC provides a comprehensive range of financial services: personal financial services; commercial banking; corporate, investment banking and markets; private banking; and other activities.