Partridge, who has been with Visa Inc for 13 years and led the integration of recent acquisitions CyberSource, PlaySpan and Fundamo, will step down at the end of March.

He joined Visa in 1999 as the first president and CEO of Inovant - the company that owns and operates VisaNet - and also served as COO before becoming president.

Charles Scharf, CEO, Visa, says: "John and his teams have consistently delivered on our commitment to be the world's most secure and reliable payments system, and I want to thank him for his years of dedication and service."

No details on potential replacements have been given.

Separately, in a move spotted by The Next Web, Visa has hired former PayPal man Sam Shrauger as head of global commercialisation, responsible for "developing, implementing, and optimising the company's strategy and processes for bringing new Visa products and services to market successfully".

Shrauger was most recently at Yahoo for a brief period during Scott Thompson's short-lived reign, having joined his boss from PayPal, where he spent eight years.

At PayPal he was VP of global product and experience, led a variety of product lines, launched its digital goods payment offering, and oversaw the integration of Bill Me Later.