Visa Europe has appointed Peter Ayliffe, former head of Lloyds TSB's retail operations, as its new chief executive.
Ayliffe is replacing Hans van der Velde, who is retiring after more than 10 years as chief executive of Visa's Europe operations.
Ayliffe spent 20 years at Lloyds TSB, rising to become head of retail operations. He was sacked in January 2005 after only 18 months in the job following a management shake-up by Lloyds TSB chief executive Eric Daniels.
He takes charge of Visa Europe as the group comes under further scrutiny from regulators regarding its interchange fees.
In October the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) ruled that the interchange fees charged by Visa's UK members for processing card transactions are anti-competitive. The regulator said the collective interchange agreement between Visa and its member banks leads to an unduly high fee being paid to card issuing banks by merchant acquirers on every Visa transaction.
However Visa said in January that it would take legal action against the OFT if the regulator insists on additional cuts to its interchange fees.