Visa Inks New Deals to Scale Up Cross Border Payments Capability
(3 April 2024 – United States) Visa has announced a raft of new deals to improve its international cross-border payments services extended to third parties including Thunes, LemFi and Western Union.
Visa identified the commercial money-movement market as a US$200 trillion annual opportunity, a figure Visa CEO Ryan McInerney described as an “enormous number” on the January earnings call.
Visa and Thunes declared they have deepened a relationship the firms commenced in 2022, so that Visa will now harness Thunes' network to provide Visa payouts to 108 wallet types worldwide, expanding the card network's reach in Kenya, Indonesia, the Philippines and Pakistan.
Visa Cross-Border Solutions, the card network's cross-border payments arm, last month announced a deal with London based international remittance firm LemFi to expand an existing partnership. LemFi designated Visa its primary partner in facilitating cross-border transactions, enabling LemFi to extend remittance services to China, India and Pakistan.
The group also recently announced a seven-year agreement with Western Union that will enable the remittance firm's customers to send funds to recipients' Visa cards and bank accounts in 40 countries, up from 20 countries under the previous 2020 partnership. The deal includes card issuance and will harness Visa Direct and risk-management services.
“Past iterations of the partnership focused on serving consumers in North America and Europe. The new agreement expands the services to be truly global. The partnership now covers Visa card issuance, integration between payments network Visa Direct and Western Union, and other services” stated Visa Head of Commercial and Money-Movement Solutions, Chris Newkirk.
“People rely on remittances to send lifeline payments to their loved ones overseas. When we consider the urgency and need for accessibility, secure payment options with added convenience can make all the difference,”
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