US Justice Department probing Visa over debit practices

The Justice Department is looking at Visa Inc's debit practices, the company said on Friday, after reports the United States was investigating whether the credit card company uses anticompetitive practices in the debit-card market.

"The US Department of Justice has informed Visa of its plans to open an investigation into Visa's US debit practices," the company said in a securities filing. "We have received a notice to preserve relevant documents related to the investigation."

The Justice Department is probing whether Visa uses anticompetitive practices in the debit-card market, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said the Justice Department's antitrust division was looking in to whether Visa limited merchants' ability to route debit-card transactions over card networks that are often less expensive.