First credit card securitization (1986)
Bank One (Delaware) issued the first credit-card-backed securities, packaging card receivables into bonds investors could buy. That turned card loans from a balance-sheet cost into a fundable asset class.
Banks gained a cheap, scalable source of capital for card issuance, fueling the credit card boom of the late 1980s and 1990s.
Receivables-backed finance became the backbone of consumer lending, with card securitizations now measured in hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
Visa's model applies the same insight to stablecoin card programs: settlement receivables are reliable collateral. Onchain data and smart contracts replace the opaque underwriting that once limited receivables financing.
