Visa is collaborating with a wide range of financial service and payment firms to develop a new interoperable peer-to-peer (P2P) payment product that enables consumers to send money to friends and enterprises even if they use different payment providers.
The world of business has unquestionably been altered by digital payments, but the overwhelming quantity of available payment applications has made it difficult for consumers to send money to others without a little hassle. Everything goes well if they are both PayPal users, for example. If not, customers must either make a bank transfer or manage many P2P payment applications at once.
This issue is addressed by Visa+, the new service from Visa. Venmo and PayPal customers in the United States will be able to transfer funds between the two platforms later this year thanks to a new connection powered by Visa+. It’s important to note that even though PayPal already owns Venmo as a result of its previous parent company eBay’s $800 million purchase of Braintree ten years ago, real-time money transfers between the two platforms have not yet been made feasible.
As long as Visa+ is enabled, neither user in a PayPal-Venmo transaction will need to have a Visa card connected to their individual accounts.
Visa only acts as the infrastructure and the connection between the two services. The user creates their own special payment handle, links it to their PayPal or Venmo account, and then shares it with the person or company they wish to pay. Nobody needs to provide their cell phone numbers, email addresses, or other personal information because of this, which may be very handy when depositing and withdrawing money from the best payout casinos.
Other payment companies in the mix
Other organizations who endorsed Visa+ for the announcement last week included Western Union, TabaPay, i2C, and DailyPay. According to Visa, these companies will help extend Visa+ to a variety of use cases, such as the gig and creator economies as well as online marketplaces.
Of course, there are a number of notable absences from Visa’s initial list of partners, such as Cash App and significant suppliers of digital wallets like Google and Apple. However, interoperability is becoming a major point of contention in the digital realm, including payments.
To facilitate interoperability across digital wallets, the Linux Foundation has established the Open Wallet Foundation. Visa+ fits into that larger effort, albeit having a limited reach in its initial iteration. However, Visa will probably push for more third parties to join before it goes live.
Visa stated that it will begin offering Visa+ to customers later this year, with wide availability following in the middle of 2024.
Interoperability is the key feature
Visa+ will broaden its market penetration in the digital payments sector as a result of this partnership. Through Visa+, participating neo-banks, digital wallets, and other payment applications with millions of US customers will be able to allow interoperability.
“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”, said Chris Newkirk, Global Head of New Payment Flows at Visa.
Interoperability is regarded as one of the most crucial issues in the payments sector, according to the business organization U.S. Faster Payments Council. Visa+ acts as a bridge to expand the world of person-to-person payments with new levels of accessibility, ease, and convenience.
Kevin Coop, the CEO of DailyPay, stated: “We are honored 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. And through participating wallets, their earned wages could be available the moment they earn it using DailyPay and Visa+.”
“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”, added Ava Kelly, chief product officer for i2c Inc.