With the digital payments market taking off around the globe, Visa wants to make sure it’s the partner financial technology startups turn to.
To meet that end its launching Visa Partner, a portal that provides fintechs with what it says is “unprecedented” access to its technologies and networks.
“We see about 1,000 companies that we think have the ability to become new, flourishing digital payment ecosystems. Visa is opening the door to allow these companies to connect with our network on a global scale,” said Matt Dill, head of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa. “What they do for us is offer new use cases that extend the reach of our network.
It makes sense Visa wants to be the go-to partner for the fintech industry. The market potential is huge. According to Visa $17 trillion in consumer payments are made in cash and check. On top of that 1.7 billion people are unbanked, or don’t have access to traditional banking services.
There are a slew of fintechs across the globe working on solutions to those problems. They are going after small businesses and the unbanked, bringing digital banking services to the millions ignored by the traditional financial services companies.
These fintechs are also raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding, walking away with billion dollar valuations. Visa wants to make sure it is these fintechs friend not foe.
“It’s a very fertile environment for new financial services models,” said Dill. “Visa is leaning into that by making it easier to work with us wherever you are.” The goal is for these fintechs to create new use cases and open up digital payments to more people around the world. Dill pointed to Go-Jerk, the Indonesian ride hailing company as one type of partnership its forging. “There’s not a lot of payment cards in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam,” said Dill.
The Visa Partner portal builds on efforts already in the works to help fintechs bring new digital payment services to the market. In July it expanded its global Fast Track program to the U.S. which is designed to speed up the process of integrating with Visa. The payment company also partners with fintechs including Currencycloud, N26, Razer and Remitly. Investment dollars are going to a bevy of financial technology startups including Plaid, the fintech data aggregator, among others.
The Visa Partner portal is designed to take its efforts to the next level. Visa realizes the quicker fintechs are able to get their product to market, the sooner it will benefit. To do that its cutting the red tape typically found when working with a large financial services company. It’s also leveraging its global reach to help fintechs meet rules and regulations in their local markets. Through the program, fintechs can apply for licenses online in a few clicks, fund and hook up with payment partners to help them go to market with their product or service and access educational videos.
“Fintechs are constantly innovating on our network and creating new types of payment flows that we think will continue to push the boundaries on better ways to pay, everywhere,” said Terry Angelos, Global Head of Fintech, Visa in a press release announcing Visa Partner. “We are making it easier for fintechs to launch with Visa, enabling them to innovate faster and bring new payment flows to market.”
