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Fast, Frictionless, and Secure Payments: The Promise of Visa Direct for Fintech Startups

By Arteculate Feb 17, 2023 #Sponsored #VISA
Visa Direct

As industries and businesses move to a more customer-centric model with a faster settlement of high-volume, low-dollar claims, Visa Direct is being recognized by many as the best way forward. For the unfamiliar, Visa Direct allows end users, businesses, and clients to move funds domestically and globally seamlessly

As part of the Visa Fintech Initiative Sri Lanka, which was held alongside Hatch to help Sri Lankan fintechs make digital payments frictionless, a webinar introduced them to utilizing the service. It featured Director-Visa Direct (India & South Asia), Shikha Gupta, Senior Director – Head of Visa Direct Specialised Sales AP, Dan Stevens, and Senior Director – Money Movement Sales and Partnerships Director Asia Pacific, Christian Catanescu. The three experts went into detail on the service and what it offers customers and partners.

The inner workings of Visa Direct 

As consumers, we think of Visa historically as the network for commerce. With Visa Direct, consumers can now use Visa cards to send and receive payments to other cardholders. Simply put, it makes the cards bi-directional; funds can be traditionally “pulled” from a card to pay for purchases and “pushed” to cards to receive payments. With the company’s reach, scalability, security, and longevity, the service is a revolution in e-commerce. 

Connecting to Visa Direct and getting started is pretty straightforward. There are three ways to connect to the service: Direct to Account, Direct to Card, and Unified Connection. With Direct to Account, one can send money to accounts in over 70 countries via a network of local banking partners. Finally, a Unified Connection is a recent feature established this year that will enable users to reach accounts, cards, and wallets.

Market Landscape and Opportunities 

Today, industries across the board are embarking on digital transformation journeys, reshaping every aspect of their operations, including payments. During the webinar, the speakers highlighted that payments have two sides – the sender and receiver. Visa Direct is an innovative product for the sender, offering them a seamless experience without friction. Such products make it effortless for consumers to spend money. However, on the other side of the equation – whether it’s a marketplace, merchant, or even a gig worker on a ride-sharing platform, the experience isn’t quite the same. Here, the service shines as a powerful solution with its ability to pull payments in both directions. 

Further, the pandemic accelerated the trend of small and medium businesses embracing digital payments. The instantaneous settlement for the services or goods rendered is a game-changer for companies and gig workers. The webinar explored real-life use cases of the service 

Collectively, the examples shared by the experts highlighted how the service enables organizations to unlock new revenue streams, improve cash-flow management, and enhance client relationships. For most organizations, Visa Direct’s capabilities serve as a market differentiator. A notable example of its capabilities is opening for faster refunds for customers. In such instances, businesses can push refunds to a consumer’s card in real-time. 

The future of Visa Direct

Ultimately, Visa Direct is a handy platform for fintech startups, as it allows them to offer their customers fast, reliable, and secure payment options. As we saw, it can help fintech startups provide real-time payments, global reach, security, and easy integration into existing payment infrastructure. In addition, by using the service, fintech startups can streamline their payment process and improve efficiency, building trust with their customers and reducing the risk of fraud and data breaches. Thus, allowing them to unlock new opportunities for revenue and growth while better serving their customers. 

By Arteculate

Arteculate is your guide to the Asian tech industry. We give you unparalleled insights, accurate, local tech news, thoughtful features and sometimes scathing opinions on where things are headed. Stay tuned for the best of Asia!

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