Visa Adds Real-Time Money Movement to FinTech Fast Track

Visa is letting members of its FinTech Fast Track program join its Visa Direct platform.

The move expands the program beyond card issuance and gives members access to real-time money movement capabilities.

“Fintechs are a vital growth engine for the payments industry, and Visa is committed to supporting their progress,” Visa Senior Vice President and Global Head of Innovation and Digital Partnerships Vanessa Colella said in a Monday (Dec. 14) news release.

“The enhanced Fast Track program offers fintechs personalized tools and resources to innovate and excel. We believe this will be a gamechanger that will catalyze new growth opportunities within this community, and further our mission to uplift everyone, everywhere.”

According to the release, the expansion lets FinTechs launch programs through their financial institutions to allow for transfers to eligible cards, bank accounts and wallets around the world.

Visa Direct supports person-to-person payments and account-to-account transfers, business and government payouts to individuals or small businesses, and merchant settlements and refunds and offers a single point of access and “reach to over 8.5 billion endpoints capability, including 3+ billion cards, 3+ billion accounts and 2.5+ billion digital wallets.”

Recent reporting by PYMNTS has examined the importance of real-time payments to a variety of sectors, including the construction industry.

“Payments in this industry are typically late, which can have damaging downstream effects on processes,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “One of the most direct consequences of these payment delays is increased costs across the entire sector.”

In the U.S., payment delays in the construction world contribute to an overall increase of $273 billion in bids and ratchet up costs, with general contractors and subcontractors increasing their bids between 6% and 10% to make up for the inevitability of late payments.

Meanwhile, Shaunt Sarkissian, founder and CEO of AI-ID, told PYMNTS Monday that he sees a major role for instant payments in the business-to-business (B2B) realm.

“The real-time payments opportunity is most prevalent in business and B2B transactions. If I get that money right away, I can start earning interest on it … immediacy has an impact for businesses and allows faster, even different, business models,” Sarkissian said.