TransferWise and Visa team up for global expansion
London based non-bank online payments company TransferWise and Visa have announced a global expansion and partnership using Visa’s Cloud Connect which would allow fintechs to connect with Visa’s global processing network.
TransferWise last year had announced its global partnership with Mastercard wherein it announced the issuance of cards in any market where Mastercard is accepted and TransferWise is licenced.
Under the new partnership, it would allow TransferWise to expand its multi-currency debit cards in the Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, U.K. and U.S. TransferWise’s multi-currency account allows businesses and consumers to hold and convert 55 currencies at the real exchange rate.
“We’ve been working to remove borders in the world’s financial networks. Cards should work the same across borders too,” said Kristo Käärmann, TransferWise co-founder and CEO.
According to the press release, expansion into the new market would require ‘significant investment in local data centres, telecommunications infrastructure and specialized payment hardware’ but TransferWise presses that with the Visa Cloud Connect it has been able to a secure connection to VisaNet which eliminates the need for ‘costly local connectivity’ and speed up the roll out.
“With Visa Cloud Connect, we’ve created an approach that lets TransferWise tap into Visa’s global infrastructure through a single integration. Through our work with TransferWise, we’ve created a blueprint for other fintechs to quickly and securely connect with Visa”, said Jack Forestell, executive vice president and chief product officer, Visa.