Military Audit: Visa

Direct Defence Contracting & Procurement

No public evidence identified of any contract, tender award, or memorandum of understanding between Visa and Israel’s Ministry of Defence, the IDF, the Israel Prison Service, or the Israel Border Police. Visa does not appear among the categories listed in the SIBAT Defense and HLS Directory (aerospace, naval, land forces, electronics, optronics, homeland security) ¹. No press releases or trade-press reporting describing defence cooperation or joint ventures between Visa and Israeli defence entities were located. Visa also does not appear by name in the OHCHR settlement-business database summaries or in the named-company excerpts of the UN Special Rapporteur’s “economy of genocide” report, whose arms/tech/surveillance sections instead name Elbit Systems, IAI, Lockheed Martin, Leonardo SpA, FANUC, A.P. Moller–Maersk, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, IBM, and Palantir ²³⁴⁵.

Dual-Use Products & Tactical Variants

No public evidence identified of any ruggedised, tactical, or mil-spec variant of Visa’s core products, which consist of a payment network and card issuance/processing services rather than physical or dual-use hardware. No public evidence identified of export licence applications or end-user certificates tied to Israeli defence or security end-users for any Visa product.

Heavy Machinery, Construction & Infrastructure

Visa’s product category - a payments-network operator - is not applicable to equipment manufacturing, and No public evidence identified of Visa-supplied equipment, vehicles, or machinery documented in settlement, separation-barrier, or military-installation construction or demolition activity, per review of Who Profits and AFSC Investigate company-profile methodology as applied to comparable financial institutions ⁶⁷. No public evidence identified of construction or engineering contracts involving Visa for checkpoints, detention facilities, or settlement infrastructure.

Supply Chain Integration with Defence Primes

No public evidence identified of Visa supplying components, sub-systems, or manufacturing/technology services to Elbit Systems, IAI, Rafael, or IMI; the PAX report on companies arming Israel and their financiers did not yield a confirmed Visa mention in the portions reviewable, though the full PDF could not be parsed with certainty ⁸. No public evidence identified of joint development, co-production, or technology-transfer agreements between Visa and Israeli defence firms.

A distinct, indirect thread concerns Visa’s brand-licensing relationships in Israel: Visa’s card network is licensed to third-party Israeli issuing/acquiring banks rather than operated directly. Cal (Israel Credit Cards) - historically jointly owned by Bank Leumi (65%) and Israel Discount Bank (35%) - issues “Visa CAL”-branded cards ⁹. Bank Leumi Le-Israel is listed in the OHCHR settlement-business database for banking and financial-services activities and is documented by Who Profits and AFSC Investigate as operating branches and ATMs in West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan settlements including Ma’ale Adumim, Kiryat Arba, Modi’in Illit, Beitar Illit, Ramot Eshkol, and Katzrin ⁶⁷¹⁰. This constitutes a brand-licensing/network relationship between Visa and a bank with documented settlement operations, rather than a direct contractual relationship between Visa Inc. and settlement infrastructure; the Bank of Israel has supported a separation of Visa Cal from Bank Leumi’s ownership structure, though the post-separation status of this licensing exposure was not independently confirmed ¹¹.

Logistical Sustainment & Base Services

No public evidence identified of Visa service contracts - catering, transport, fuel, waste management, facilities, or telecom - supplied to IDF bases, training facilities, or detention centres in the West Bank, Golan, East Jerusalem, Negev, or elsewhere. Visa’s business model is not applicable to shipping, freight, or port-handling services, and No public evidence identified of any such contracts servicing Israeli military cargo or arms shipments.

Munitions, Weapons Systems & Strategic Platforms

No public evidence identified of Visa involvement, as manufacturer, integrator, or component supplier, in Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow, fighter aircraft, tanks, warships, or ballistic missile systems; this domain is not applicable to Visa’s product or service category ¹⁸.

Export Licensing, Regulatory & Legal History

Export licence grant/denial/suspension/revocation decisions are not applicable to Visa in the Israeli military/security end-user context, as Visa’s network is a financial service rather than an export-controlled good. An adjacent but distinct finding is that Visa, together with Mastercard, was reported in September 2021 to have continued processing donations to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network via the Alliance for Global Justice after Discover Card severed ties, drawing allegations from an advocacy outlet of potential US anti-terrorism-law compliance concerns; this is a counter-terrorism-financing compliance matter rather than a defence-supply relationship, and the post-2021 status of this processing relationship is unconfirmed ¹². Separately, Visa was called upon, alongside Mastercard, to cut ties with Palestinian terror funding ¹³, and in a pre-2020 episode Visa (with Mastercard and American Express) reportedly shut down online credit-card donation processing for Al-Haq, a Palestinian human-rights organisation, reportedly citing alleged ties to the PFLP - a platform/compliance decision restricting a Palestinian civil-society organisation’s payment access rather than a defence-supply matter ¹³. No public evidence identified of court proceedings or judicial review specifically targeting Visa’s defence-sector relationship with Israel; a broader 2026 lawsuit against the French government over financial-sector ties to Israeli settlements did not name Visa in the reviewed summary ¹⁴.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Documented Investigations

No dedicated NGO investigation by Who Profits, AFSC Investigate, or PAX specifically targeting Visa’s military/defence supply relationship with Israel was located ⁶⁷⁸. No public evidence identified of an organised boycott or divestment campaign specifically targeting Visa’s defence-sector activities, as distinct from general boycott-movement calls directed at financial institutions broadly. No public evidence identified of Visa policy statements, contract terminations, or end-use monitoring commitments issued specifically in response to Israel-Gaza-related civil society pressure. Visa maintains an Innovation Studio in Tel Aviv, opened in February 2018, partnering with Israeli fintech startups; reporting describes fintech-sector collaboration only, with no documented link to Unit 8200, the IDF, or defence-linked startups in the sources reviewed ¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷. Visa’s FY2025 Form 10-K discloses that geopolitical conditions in regions where it operates, with Israel grouped under its CEMEA region, could pose business or security risks, but the excerpts reviewed contain no disclosed Israel-specific subsidiary defence relationship ¹⁸. Visa’s proxy statement and board-election filings identify the company’s named controlling principals - CEO Ryan McInerney, Chair John F. Lundgren, and directors including Lloyd A. Carney, Kermit R. Crawford, Francisco Javier Fernández-Carbajal, Ramon Laguarta, Teri L. List, Denise M. Morrison, Pamela Murphy, Linda J. Rendle, Maynard G. Webb Jr., and Bill Ready - with No public evidence identified of defense-board roles, Israeli defence-industry directorships, FIDF donations, or public co-belligerency statements attributed to any of them ¹⁹²⁰²¹. Board member Pamela Murphy is CEO of Imperva, a cybersecurity firm founded by Israeli entrepreneurs, an enterprise-software relationship with no documented connection to military or kinetic weapons systems ²².

End Notes