The Visa IPO stands to make a lot of money (ok it probably already has) for a lot of people (there were some happy people ringing that bell…), banks (issuers), more banks (underwriters), both (JP Morgan Chase), and others. But the opportunity also arises for value creation for all constituents in the card payments process—on the merchant side as well as the issuing side—depending on the actions Visa, Inc. takes moving forward (oh and just in case you were wondering, as of this writing the stock’s up another 12% to $63.05!!).

I’m often asked about Visa’s competitive positioning with MasterCard (gee really, as a payments industry analyst I get that question a lot??), and I often characterize it as “second mover.” I’ve also heard “fast follower.” I like my characterization better because I don’t think Visa is a follower. The second move when there are only two in the game, and the second mover is the market leader doesn’t inherently lead to a following position. We’ve seen it at Visa going back several decades with such examples as debit card product development, more recently with contactless technology, and now with organizational structure and corporate governance.

Visa takes a situation, product, or technology, analyzes MasterCard’s experience with it, and then jumps into the fray. This does not necessarily minimize MasterCard’s success—more often it improves it through actual proof of the concept (technology, product, etc.). But Visa is often able to enhance the scale and scope of industry efforts, and I’m getting the feeling that it translates to the company’s capabilities post IPO.

We shall see in the coming months. Day 2 and counting…