Breaking financial barriers with a fresh approach to cross-border transactions
As the global economy grows ever more connected and digitized, moving money seamlessly across borders is vital for the smooth-running of worldwide commerce. Yet international payments can be slow, cumbersome and opaque, taking days to wend their way through a chain of institutions, each levying charges.
Visa Direct, a leader in international payments, is launching a new chapter in financial connectivity as it strives to break down the barriers to money movement. With the launch of the all-new Visa Direct this autumn, the payment network is creating a single point of access for sending and receiving money, bringing together Visa’s infrastructure and expertise to connect everyone across the globe and allow them to move their money how they choose.
Visa Direct, a world leader in digital payments, is launching a new chapter in financial connectivity as it strives to break down the barriers to money movement. With the launch of the all-new Visa Direct this autumn, the payment network is creating a single point of access for sending and receiving money, bringing together Visa’s infrastructure and expertise to connect everyone across the globe and allow them to move their money how they choose.
The new-look Visa Direct will consolidate three of Visa’s existing money movement solutions, Visa B2B Connect, Currencycloud and Visa Direct, into a single point of integration. The new, integrated money movement network reaches over 11 billion endpoints across more than 190 enabled countries in 160 currencies including three billion cards and 2.5 billion digital wallets.
The bold new Visa Direct is designed to overcome these points of friction by taking advantage of Visa’s advanced technology to offer a secure, integrated service connecting people globally.
Money movement has been transformed in recent years by the growth of fintech solutions. Visa Direct is at the forefront of developments, engaging with, supporting and acquiring innovative fintech start-ups to address the needs of financial institutions, fintechs, remitters, FX brokers, trading platforms and businesses.
Four key benefits offered by the new, unified Visa Direct are access, trust, innovation and prosperity. Access across billions of endpoints ensures that Visa Direct is one of the most widely accessible cross-border payment systems in the world. It stands to enhance global financial inclusion and spur international commerce.
The company has invested $10 billion in security and anti-fraud programs over the past six years leveraging AI, advanced cybersecurity protection and analytics to enhance the security of digital transactions. Visa Direct is prioritizing trust in its network so users have absolute confidence when they send their payments.
Visa Direct also allows companies to track transactions to see the status of transfers, a level of transparency which is important for many businesses. Furthermore, businesses can use Visa Direct for bulk payments whether payroll or insurance payouts, securely and at scale.
60%
15-20
$10bn
The company has invested
leveraging:
AI
advanced cybersecurity protection
analytics
Learn more about Visa Direct here
The Reuters news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, the brand marketing studio of Reuters.
Produced by Reuters Plus for
Disclaimer: The Reuters news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, the brand marketing studio of Reuters. To work with Reuters Plus, contact us here.
of cross-border payments involve manual intervention
Each taking
minutes
in security and anti-fraud programs
References
1.
Revolutionizing global money movement
The launch comes as governments and central banks worldwide call for radical action to improve global money movement. In a speech by Victoria Cleland of the Bank of England, it was noted that some transfers between nations could take up to ten days and cost as much as 10% of the transfer’s value, while the average cost is over 6%2.
Payments from the UK to certain territories must pass through four currencies and five banks3 while some transfers still use a century old technology. Alarmingly, six out of ten cross-border payments4 involve manual intervention, each taking 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, fluctuating exchange rates mean that rates can vary substantially between making the payment and receiving it.
Innovation has long been at the core of Visa’s business. From the first card launch in the 1950s through to the advent of mobile wallets and payments, Visa has been at the forefront of innovation in this sector. The launch of the new Visa Direct takes global money movement on to a new level with a supercharged experience which combines Visa’s reach, infrastructure, acquisitions, expertise, branding and technology.
Boosting business prosperity is a key mission for Visa Direct. By enhancing global payments and creating a fast, streamlined system of transfers, this will unlock economic activity and empower businesses of all sizes worldwide to expand global trade.
Reinforcing these values, Visa Direct offers services that allow for simpler, faster and more transparent international payments. In the area of Foreign Exchange, Visa Direct offers real-time exchange rates for making payments in different currencies.
Driving innovation and prosperity
Visa Direct breaks down the barriers to rapid international transfers. By consolidating multiple payment solutions into a single platform, it offers unparalleled global reach, enhanced security, and real-time transaction capabilities. For businesses and individuals alike, Visa Direct simplifies cross-border payments, reducing costs and processing times while increasing transparency.
In an increasingly interconnected world, Visa Direct's comprehensive solution meets the evolving needs of modern financial transactions, enabling seamless money movement across borders and currencies, and unlocking the power of payments for businesses, consumers, and governments everywhere.
Unlocking global commerce
A powerful suite of risk controls helps protect customers against fraud. These include the use of predictive analytics to score the risk of transaction on up to 500 parameters, tokenization which makes data unreadable if breached and a program of customer education to help beat the fraudsters.
Supporting a wide range of use cases, the new-look Visa Direct offers businesses a flexible payment system for all their cross-border payment needs. This matters to every business. Delays in payments can ultimately impact the bottom line, straining business relationships, increasing costs and damaging reputations. A delay in receiving funds may hit revenue streams, making it difficult to pay customers, expenses and staff and can reduce cash reserves. In today’s real-time economy, rapid payments are becoming part of the business model for many international businesses. Time really is money when it comes to cross-border payments.
The service is aiming to lead the way in the $200 trillion global commercial and money movement segment, $25 trillion1 of which involves cross-border transfers. The next-generation Visa Direct continues Visa’s mission of creating a network of networks, providing the single point of access for financial institutions, fintechs and other players to move money more seamlessly across each other’s networks.
Visa Direct offers real-time* payments for certain endpoints and has extensive global reach, enabling payments to be sent to any eligible card, wallet or bank account.
Anastasia Serikova, Head of Revenue and Growth in Europe at Visa Direct discusses how the new Visa Direct platform streamlines cross-border payments with a unified API, improving affordability and security and access.
*Actual fund availability depends on receiving financial institution and region.
https://s1.q4cdn.com/050606653/files/doc_downloads/2022/09/CORRECTED-TRANSCRIPT_-Visa-Inc.(V-US)-Goldman-Sachs-Communacopia-Technology-Conference.pdf
https://www.bis.org/review/r230404i.htm
https://www.bis.org/cpmi/speeches/sp200730.htm#:~:text=A%2520payment%2520from%2520the%2520UK,of%2520the%2520global%2520financial%2520plumbing
https://noire.com/the-benefits-of-visa-direct
2.
3.
4.
