A Conversation with Visa, Inc., Chief Executive Officer Alfred F. Kelly, Jr.

Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., chief executive officer of Visa, Inc., sat down with John Fish, chairman and chief executive officer of Suffolk, at the September 27 meeting of the Boston College Chief Executives Club. The two Boston College Board of Trustees members discussed businesses and economies around the world, the rapid growth of the payments "ecosystem," and a range of innovations, including cryptocurrencies—evolving digital monetary options that Visa tracks, but doesn't see as quite the right fit now as a payment vehicle. When asked about the future of cash, Kelly commented, "last year was the first time that electronic or digital payments were more than cash, yet the absolute amount of money spent on cash around the world was actually higher last year than five years ago." He went on to speculate that a cashless world won't take place during his tenure as CEO of Visa. With nearly 17,000 employees worldwide and reported revenues of $18.4 billion in 2017, Visa is the world’s leader in digital payments and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transactions a second.