Visa International announced plans to refresh and evolve its brand identity and structure Tuesday in Hong Kong.

The changes include a new look for the famous blue, white and gold Visa logo and changes to card design features. The first cards and merchant signage bearing the new logo is expected to appear by the end of this year.

"We were simply a consumer credit card company. Today, debit and prepaid products, commercial payment solutions and processing and authentication services are major components of our business,"said Christopher Rodrigues, president and CEO of Visa International.

"We need to evolve the way the brand is used to enable consumers and merchants to distinguish between different Visa products and services while continuing to trust Visa to enable them to make efficient secure payments anywhere in the world," he added.

The updated brand will work better across new technologies and payment channels, such as the Internet, mobile phones and handheld devices, he noted.

As well as a refreshed Visa logo on the card, the well-known Visa dove hologram on the front of the card will be moved to the back and be integrated with the magnetic stripe, making card counterfeiting more difficult.

With more than one billion cards globally and more than 22 million acceptance locations, it is estimated that full adoption of the new cards with updated design and format will take about three years.

As the world's leading payment brand, Visa generates more than 3 trillion US dollars in annual card sales volume. In Asia Pacific,Visa has a market share of 62 percent with more than 229 million VISA-branded cards in the region.

Source: Xinhua