Visa has partnered with PayPal and Venmo to pilot ‘Visa+’, a new service looking to support individuals in moving money quickly and securely between different person-to-person (P2P) digital payment apps.
The new service looks to reduce the need to choose between multiple payment apps. Visa+ asks the user to set up one “payname” in their preferred wallet; enabling others to send them money from any participating apps – simply by entering the correct payname of the recipient. The news will also see Venmo and PayPal users in the US moving money between the two platforms later this year.
As part of a joint effort to build interoperability across payment platforms, Visa partners DailyPay, i2c, TabaPay and Western Union, will also integrate Visa+ within their platforms.
Through this collaboration, Visa+ will expand its reach and enable more use cases, including gig, creator and marketplace payouts. Participating digital wallets, neo-banks and other payment apps, reaching millions of US users, will also be a huge support in enabling interoperability through Visa+. The payment service also has launch plans for US consumers with select partners in late 2023.
Chris Newkirk, global head of new payment flows at Visa, explained the need for such a solution. Newkirk commented: “Consumers continue to seek simple and seamless ways to digitally move money between friends and family, including the ability to send money between different payment platforms.
“We are thrilled to partner with like-minded innovators to broaden the reach of P2P payments across platforms. Through this collaboration, Visa+ can help break down barriers for payment app users as they connect, engage and move money.”
Visa+ partners’ reaction
Kevin Coop, CEO of DailyPay, discussed the reasons behind the company partnering with Visa in this venture. Coop said: “We are honoured to partner with Visa on our mission to make Earned Wage Access available to everyone, everywhere. By empowering workers with choice and control over their earned pay, we enable them to pay bills on time, spend, save, or invest on their own schedule. Also, through participating wallets, their earned wages could be available the moment they earn it using DailyPay and Visa+.”
Ava Kelly, chief product officer for i2c Inc., also commented on the launch: “We’re excited to be a part of this forward-thinking initiative and to continue to be an innovation partner to Visa. We continuously strive to help banks, credit unions and fintechs remove friction from the customer experience and make the ‘how’ of moving money an afterthought.”
Tim Astanov, head of commercialisation at TabaPay, said: “We started TabaPay with a goal to make instant payments simple, reliable and universal. Visa+ is significant progress towards achieving that goal. As one of the largest processors for Visa Direct, we are excited to expand our relationship with Visa. This new and innovative solution for the fintech community will remove friction, as well as make instant money movement easier for our clients and their customers.”
Thomas Mazzaferro, chief data and innovation officer at Western Union, also commented: “Western Union’s mission is to deliver accessible financial services around the world. Visa’s new product launch of Visa+ is delivering upon that mission and offers new innovative payment options for our customers.”
