Revolutionizing global money movement
As global economic integration deepens, the demand for efficient, secure, and accessible cross-border payment solutions continues to grow. Visa's supercharged Visa Direct platform is reshaping the financial landscape, offering a comprehensive solution to these evolving needs.
The landscape of global money movement is undergoing a significant transformation. With cross-border payments expected to rise from $150 trillion in 2017 to over $250 trillion by 20271, the need for efficient, transparent, and secure methods to cross-border money transfers has never been greater – and the expectations have never been higher. As these needs evolve, so must the solutions that address them. Riding the wave of possibility presented by the digital revolution, Visa Direct aims to provide a comprehensive response to these demands, enabling reliable and efficient money transfers worldwide.
The importance of seamless money movement
Money movement is vital in sustaining livelihoods, particularly in regions heavily dependent on remittances. Cross-border remittances facilitate international transfers to family or friends, while account-to-account transfers enable efficient money movement between financial institutions. Workers get their earnings quicker and small businesses can more rapidly access their sales revenue.
However, cross-border transactions remain complex, with multiple challenges that can hinder the flow of money. High transaction fees, hidden costs, and economic fluctuations can significantly reduce the value received by beneficiaries. Additionally, security concerns remain a major issue, with both senders and receivers needing assurances that their money will arrive safely and without delay. There is a critical need for innovative solutions that can streamline the process while maintaining security and transparency.
To address these challenges, Visa combined its money movement capabilities and launched the new and supercharged Visa Direct platform. This solution puts the power of money movement in clients' hands, offering an end-to-end and modular approach so they can move money around the world in their own way.
Visa Direct combines into a single portfolio the reach, expertise, acquisitions, and technology of three previously standalone money movement capabilities – Visa B2B Connect, Visa Cross-Border Solutions, and Visa Direct. This consolidation allows financial institutions, fintechs, businesses, and governments to collect, hold, convert, and send them using the Visa Direct portfolio.
Visa Direct: A game-changer for money movement
As the global economy continues to integrate, the demand for reliable and efficient money movement solutions will only increase. Visa Direct is at the forefront of this evolution, offering a unified and reliable way to transfer money across borders.
By investing in the development of secure, scalable, and efficient payment platforms, the financial industry can help create a more inclusive and connected world. Visa Direct's ability to seamlessly connect people and institutions across the globe ensures that financial transactions are always as simple and secure as possible.
The future of cross-border payments
3.8%
in 2023
$669bn
Reaching
in 2023
The estimated growth of remittances
Multiple steps are involved, including:
Some countries may have stricter laws governing:
verifying credentials
authorizing transactions
following strict internal and regulatory protocols
Learn more about Visa Direct here
Visa Direct:
Everything we do has become seamless and more digital. We want to bring that same seamlessness and digital experience to money movement.
Shahebaz Khan
Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Visa CEMEA
According to Visa's Money Travels: 2024 Digital Remittances Adoption Report:
In 2023, remittances to low- and middle-income countries grew by an estimated
Connecting to the Money Movement network provides expertise, innovation, and security based on over 120 use cases.
Shahebaz Khan
Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions
for Visa CEMEA
The global market for money movement presents substantial opportunities for growth and innovation, with an estimated total addressable market of $55 trillion globally2. The Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) region alone represents a $5 trillion opportunity3, spanning various types of transactions including B2B, B2C, person-to-person, and government-to-consumer.
Despite these opportunities, sending money overseas has historically been a time-consuming and costly process.
Worldwide opportunities and global challenges
online money transfers
the use of different currencies and time zones
leading to excessive paperwork and time-consuming identity checks
The new supercharged Visa Direct will continue to evolve, adapting to new technologies and changing consumer needs. The platform's modular approach allows for continuous innovation, and with a focus on efficiency and security, this is a significant step forward in meeting the diverse and growing demands of the global money movement landscape.
We want to give customers the option to send money in almost real-time. Wherever they want to send it, across 8.5 billion endpoints.
Shahebaz Kha
Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Visa CEMEA
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.
And what of local or regional businesses with global ambitions? Visa Direct provides local merchants with access to global markets, improving transparency and speed of payments, and offering competitive foreign exchange rates. Specifically, through its collection capability, Visa Direct allows companies, particularly SMEs, to pay and be paid as a local in other markets, solving for the speed, cost and transparency issues of traditional cross-border payments.
Improved interoperability: Helps overcome limitations posed by closed-loop systems in markets where mobile wallets dominate.
Key features and benefits of Visa Direct:
Collection capability: Helps companies, particularly SMEs, to pay and be paid as local businesses in other markets.
Enhanced security: Offers additional services such as risk management, tokenization, and account pre-validation to enhance transaction security and efficiency.
Versatility: Supports various use cases, including domestic peer-to-peer transactions, cross-border remittances, account-to-account transfers, and faster access to earnings for workers and small businesses.
Global reach: 8.5 billion endpoints across over 190 markets, offering more than 160 currencies.
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
How does the new supercharged Visa Direct platform tackle challenges to cross-border payments? Shahebaz Khan, Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions CEMEA at Visa, discusses this and more.
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.
References
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/dbs-dubais-mashreq-partner-same-day-cross-border-payments-retail-clients-2024-06-2
McKinsey Global Payments Map 2022, 2022 EY Visa Direct Global Market Sizing Study, Visa analysis
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2, 3.
