Electronic value exchange: origins of the VISA electronic payment system

Setting the stage : money, credit, and payments in America. The Federal Reserve system and national check clearing ; Early charge cards ; Travel and entertainment cards ; Bank-issued credit cards ; National bankcard associations -- Associating : Dee Hock and the creation of the organization. Problems in the licensing program ; Dee Hock ; Creation of the National BankAmericard Inc. -- Crafting the social dynamics : staffing, operating regulations, and advertising. Building a staff; The operating regulations ; National advertising -- Automating authorization : BASE. The need for automated authorization ; Automating local authorizations ; Automating interchange authorizations ; The joint national authorization system ; NBI's BASE -- Automating clearing and settlement : BASE II and III. Truncating the paper: BASE II ; Losing focus: BASE III -- Expanding the system : organizational and technical growth. Expanding the organization ; Expanding the computer systems -- Automating the point of sale [...]: encoding standards and merchant dial terminals. Dreaming the future: BASE IV ; Encoding the card: magnetic stripes and magic middles ; Dialing for dollars: the merchant dial terminal project -- Challenging conceptual barriers : EFT and the debit card. Visa synonymous with credit, debt, and financial distress? ; EFT utopia, dystopia and reality ; Electronic funds transfer or electronic value exchange? ; The "asset card" concept ; NBI's asset card -- Negotiating roles : controversies and the end of an era. Visa travelers cheques ; The JC Penney deal ; Hock's departure ; Hock's legacy -- Conclusions: toward a general sociotechnical history of payment systems. Contribution to grand themes ; Some new general dynamics in payment systems and cooperative networks ; Epilogue.