Hoping to get a bigger share of explosive growth in app-based cross-border remittance traffic — particularly in Latin America — Visa has signed a five-year partnership with U.K.-based fintech Paysend.
The pact, announced Thursday, builds on a collaboration Visa began early last year with Paysend enabling the fintech's U.S. and U.K. app users to send funds domestically and internationally through the use of Visa Direct, the card network's real-time push-payment service.
Paysend and Visa will now jointly support capabilities enabling Paysend's global customers to send money in real time to eligible Visa cards in 170 countries, with an emphasis on the U.S.-to-Latin America corridor, according to a press release. Paysend already has a strong foothold in the U.S.-to-Mexico remittance market and Visa said its deal with Paysend marks its largest partner-marketing investment to date in cross-border payments.
Visa's move comes amid escalating competition from fintech apps, which collectively are exploring different cross-border payment niches where Visa Direct is seeing strong growth.
Visa Direct's overall transaction volume during the quarter that ended June 30 increased 20%, to 1.8 billion, over the same period a year earlier, with U.S. based peer-to-peer transfers driving the majority of its activity,
"Increasingly, though, we've invested to move from our domestic P2P business to a cross-border P2P business…[that is] growing transactions at 50%-plus year-over-year growth," said Visa CEO Ryan McInerney earlier this month when speaking to analysts at a conference organized by Goldman Sachs Group.
Visa has been racing to shore up connections with cross-border payment apps, as technology increasingly expands their reach and speed. More than half, or 53% of remittance users, now rely on a digital app to send or receive funds across borders versus legacy or walk-in methods, according to
There is significant competitive crossover between Visa and other companies — both rivals and partners. For example, in addition to Paysend, Visa has partnerships with other cross-border fintech providers including
Paysend, which launched in the U.K. in 2017 and in the U.S. in 2020 and operates
"Through our expanded collaboration with Paysend, together we're enhancing domestic and cross-border money movement with the innovative payment capabilities offered through Visa Direct," said Ruben Salazar, global head of Visa Direct, in the release.
"By teaming up with Visa, we are well positioned to provide a safe, economical and hassle-free money transfer experience for millions of individuals currently facing challenges in accessing traditional banking services," said Abdul Abdulkerimov, Paysend's chairman and co-founder, in the release.
