However, after Williams
and some of his closest associates left, BofA management realized that Bankamericard was salvageable.
Over the following 11 years, various banks licensed the card system from Bank of America,
thus forming a network of banks backing the Bankamericard system across the United States.
For this reason, in 1976, Bankamericard, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue,
Chargex, Sumitomo Card, and all other licensees united under the new name,"Visa", which retained the distinctive blue, white and gold flag.
BofA officially lost over $8.8 million on the launch of Bankamericard, but when the full cost of advertising and overhead was included,
the bank's actual loss was probably around $20 million.
By March 1959, drops began in San Francisco and Sacramento; by June, BofA was dropping cards in Los Angeles; by October, the entire state had been
saturated with over 2 million credit cards, and Bankamericard was being accepted by 20,000 merchants.