Dive Brief:

• Visa has entered a seven-year agreement with Western Union to let the cross-border payment company’s customers send money to Visa cards and bank accounts in 40 countries, the card network said Tuesday.
• The tie-up covers Visa card issuance and Western Union’s integration with Visa Direct, which provides cross-border payment services. It will also allow Western Union customers to receive Visa prepaid cards in certain markets, the release said. In addition, the two companies are building disbursement programs for charitable organizations and government agencies to transmit funds in times of crisis.
• The expanded partnership builds on Western Union’s prior integration work with Visa Direct since 2019, which allowed customers in the U.S. and Europe to send funds to, and receive funds from, certain Visa cardholders, according to the press release.

Dive Insight:

San Francisco-based Visa has partnered with other companies on global expansion in the past. The network teamed with payment processor Worldpay to launch Visa Direct in Europe in 2017. The following year, Visa partnered with remittance company MoneyGram to enable customers to transfer funds using Visa Direct.

Visa has also sought to enhance its real-time payments reach via acquisitions. Visa’s Earthport acquisition in 2019 helped expand its Visa Direct network, Visa said. That same year, Visa lined up cross-border payments company Remitly as a partner, furthering the card network’s reach. Xoom, the PayPal subsidiary, also joined Visa Direct’s platform, enabling users to send real-time payments through Visa debit cards in 25 countries. 

“People rely on remittances to send lifeline payments to their loved ones overseas,” Chris Newkirk, Visa’s global head of commercial and money movement solutions, said in a statement Tuesday. “When we consider the urgency and need for accessibility, secure payment options with added convenience can make all the difference. Visa’s global scale and Western Union’s digital capabilities are revolutionizing how customers send funds around the world.”

As Visa deepens its tie with Denver-based Western Union, the network giant recently reported a slowdown in U.S. payment growth. In January, the company said that its debit transaction growth declined to 5% for the quarter ending Dec. 31, down from 7% a year prior. Visa attributed the slowdown to bad weather and regulation seeking to create more competition for online debit transaction processing.