Visa Fintech Partner Connect, a program that helps the payment company’s issuing partners connect with trusted technology developers, announced Wednesday that it is now available for clients in the US, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East, African and Caribbean markets.
The program, first released to Europe in November 2020, is aimed at helping banking banks and fintech’s work together, giving financial institutions access to services and tools by trusted technology providers.
Terry Angelos, senior vice president and global head of fintech at Visa says increasing consumer behavior and demand for digital banking capabilities was a primary driver behind the platform’s conception and expansion.
“We’ve assembled a community of payment and banking technology platforms to streamline the discovery and procurement process for our clients,” Angelos said, “with the ultimate goal of accelerating adoption of digital-first innovations.”
Visa says the program can help companies create digital services such as account opening, underwriting, new payment flows, customer engagement and financial management tools, customer authentication and transaction monitoring.
Visa identified fintechs that could help banks and other financial institutions create digital-first experiences, in order to reduce the cost, time and complexity of developing in-house, back-end technology.
Visa Fintech Partner Connect currently has about 60 partners which cover a range of industry categories, including: account opening, data aggregation, analytics and security, customer engagement and new cardholder services, operations and compliance.
The program is Visa Ready certified and offers commercial packages and cost management solutions for partners that utilize the services. Each region will have teams to handle the regions’ programs, vetting and placing them into the categories listed above.
This announcement makes it clear that Visa knows how important digital financial services are and the clear growth that is capable in the fintech market. It also makes it clear that the world-leader in payment processing wants its clients (see: banks) to get involved in the digital movement before its too late.
It’s a strategic move that not only helps partner financial institutions, but puts Visa closer to fintech companies and gives them authority when deciding which technology providers to enroll in their program.
I think tempting fintechs with access to some of the largest financial institutions in the world is a smart and appealing way to make sure financial technology companies still play by Visa’s rules.