The COVID-19 pandemic has created major financial challenges for businesses and consumers alike.
As money management becomes increasingly digital, fintechs play a pivotal role in helping to restore and rebuild the global economy. To provide increased support for the ecosystem, Visa (NYSE: V) has announced two new components of its fintech Fast Track program,
1. A rich Partner Toolkit to help fintechs accelerate their growth and better serve their customers.
2. A certification program called Visa Ready for Fintech Enablers, which makes it easier for fintechs to quickly connect with certified[1] partners for digital issuance and other key services.
Fintech leaders around the world are increasingly choosing to work with Visa across key categories including digital wallets, digital banking, ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’, B2B payments, cross-border remittance, bill payments, payments infrastructure, and person-to-person payments. Recent examples of fintechs partnering with Visa include Sparkle, PayPal, Stripe, Wallet Africa, Kuda Bank, Arca, Paga, ZappGroup and, Chipper cash among many others.
With the expansion of Visa’s industry leading Fast Track program, fintechs are armed with the tools to become category winners. Fast Track participation has grown 360% year-over-year, and Visa has welcomed hundreds of fintechs[2] who are actively engaged in the program.
“It’s thrilling to see fintech partners utilize our programs and network to digitize financial services and improve the lives of the consumers and businesses they touch,” said Otto Williams, CEMEA Vice President, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Fintech & Ventures, Visa. “Through the Fast Track program, we’re providing fintechs with a simple set of tools to bring their products to life. The resources we provide, such as online licensing and card design, have helped make Fast Track the leading program for fintechs.”
Introducing the Fast Track Partner Toolkit
Visa has introduced a Fast Track Partner Toolkit designed specifically for fintech partners who onboard with the program. The toolkit was created to accelerate a company’s growth and provides extraordinary access to Visa’s experts in strategy, marketing, design, risk management, and more. Through the toolkit, partners can leverage educational resources like payments boot camps to help upskill a company’s knowledge of the industry, tap into key strategic resources to craft customized benchmarking studies and utilize Visa’s online card design tools to help build and launch a card into market quickly.
Powering the Digital Issuance Journey with Visa Ready
Visa Ready certification for “Fintech Enablers” is designed to help technology companies build and launch payment solutions that meet Visa’s global standards around security and functionality. These companies are in turn helping fintechs around the world build their own products by providing the solutions and expertise they need to get up and running.
Available today, Visa Ready for Fintech Enablers establishes a certified ecosystem of partners who are experts in the capabilities fintechs need to launch and operate products effectively on the Visa network. Recently, the Visa Ready program has added new partners from across the globe— from Sao Paulo to Singapore. New certified processing partners include BPC Radar Payments (Global), Conductor (LAC), FIS (Global), Global Processing Services (GPS) (Global), i2c (Global), Marqeta (Global), and NovoPayment (LAC, NA). Similarly, Visa has certified BIN sponsors across the world that help stand up programs for fintechs including Dock (LAC), Nium (APAC, EU), Railsbank (APAC, EU) and Sutton Bank (NA).
Fast Track Experiences
Of the hundreds of global companies now part of the program, some of the most recent innovators to join Fast Track include:
Digital Wallets: Working with companies like Careem, LINE Pay, PalmPay, Razer, and VIPPS, Visa is expanding access to digital payments by meeting evolving consumer preferences for managing their money – and transforming some formerly closed-loop systems limited to certain geographies or functionalities into open ones, giving users greater choice, security and utility.
Advancing Financial Inclusion and Social Impact: Ensuring that consumers and businesses in all parts of the world have access to the financial tools and products to improve their lives is core to Visa’s mission. Companies like CapWay are helping to bring underrepresented communities access to digital payments, while SoLo Funds aims to provide affordable loans for Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. X1 and MPOWER Financing are pioneering new methods of extending credit to demographics like undergrads and international students, while Tomorrow aims to bring change to the mobile banking sector through its commitment to climate protection, sustainability and economic change. Daylight is a digital bank focused on improving the financial lives of the 30M LGBT+ in the U.S. and the first fintech to focus specifically on the LGBT+ community.
B2B Payments: Visa is transforming B2B payments, a segment that represents $120 trillion in opportunity[3], in its work with Fast Track members in every corner of the world, including: Airwallex, Checkbook.io, GMO-Payment Gateway, and Payhawk.
Digital Currency Advancement: Visa is working closely with companies like BlockFi, Crypto.com , eToro Money, Fold, Ternio.io, Zap and ZenGo to connect digital currencies and its existing network of 61 million merchants.
New Enablement Partners: Fast Track is made possible due to collaborations with enablement partners who lay the foundation for fintechs to build their products. Announced today, Galileo, i2C, and Peoples Trust, are becoming part of Fast Track in Canada, joining a class of over 25 enablement partners around the world.
For more information on Visa programs and resources built for the fintech community, visit here.
