Visa Partners With Remitly On Real-Time Global P2P

Instant payments — and the ability to push funds immediately across the debit rails to consumer bank accounts — has entered something of a renaissance. The demand is there: According to the latest edition of the PYMNTS Disbursements Tracker,  75 percent of consumers expressed a preference for faster payments, and 84 percent of those consumers reported debit cards as their preferred way of receiving those funds.

The number of use cases for push payments has been steadily growing — in the gig economy, in the retail economy, in consumer and SMB lending, and even in smokestack industries like insurance — and all in response to the strong consumer appetite for instant payments.

Today Visa, with Visa Direct, has added another use case for push payments — this time on a global scale.

Visa announced today that it will power real-time P2P for global remittance firm Remitly via its Visa Direct platform. Remitly users in the U.S. will be able to send funds from the United States to eligible Visa debit card holders across borders.  Visa Direct is the card network’s instant push payments platform.

“When we look at P2P on the domestic front, for example, what we see is that people want to be able to have the money put right [into] their bank account,” Frew explained. “They aren’t looking for an extra step where they have to take cash and go make a deposit to get it into their bank account where it is safe,” Cecilia Frew, senior vice president and head of Visa’s North America Push Payments, told Karen Webster in a previous conversation about Visa Direct and its impact on powering P2P payments.

The pair-up, according to Remitly, will simplify the complexity of moving money across borders and eliminate the delays  in getting money to receivers. Remitly noted in a release that it intends to use Visa Direct to “unlock more choices for its customers to send cross-border payments in real-time.”

“Our highest priority is to create the best possible money transfer experience for immigrant communities and their families around the world. Our customers have unique money transfer needs including a need for more choices in how they send and receive money,” said Matt Oppenheimer, Remitly CEO and co-founder. “This collaboration with Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, helps us meet this need with instant scale, security and reach that will help us continue to improve our service.”

Remitly uses mobile technology, machine learning, and direct integrations with partner banks and cash pickup locations to calculate a specific date and time recipients expect their funds will arrive.

“Our new relationship with Remitly underscores Visa Direct’s ability and commitment in enabling the freedom to securely send money around the world,” said Bill Sheley, global head of Visa Direct, Visa. “This collaboration extends Visa’s ability to deliver faster payments to customers, regardless of borders or location.”