Visa: the friend of fintechs

Visa, the plastic card giant, is determined that it won’t be left behind as digital payment methods increase in popularity worldwide. To do that, it is looking for partnerships with fintechs.

To handle this, it has established Vis Partner, a portal that provides fintechs with what it says is “unprecedented” access to its technologies and networks, according to Forbes.

Matt Dill, head of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa said, “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. What they do for us is offer new use cases that extend the reach of our network.”

That Visa wants to be the ‘go-to’ partner for fintechs makes sense for any industry observer. Just look at the market potential: 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. That is precisely the areas where fintechs are working to create solutions. “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 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 US, which is designed to speed up the process of integrating with Visa. It also partners with Currencycloud, N26, Razer and Remitly; all of them fintechs.

The Visa Partner portal is designed to take its efforts to the next level. Visa knows that the quicker fintechs are able to get their product to market, the sooner Visa will benefit. So it’s reducing the red tape for fintechs working with it. It’s also leveraging its global reach to help fintechs meet rules and regulations in their local markets.

Terry Angelos, Global Head of Fintech, Visa said in a press release announcing Visa Partner: “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. We are making it easier for fintechs to launch with Visa, enabling them to innovate faster and bring new payment flows to market.”