Thredd Turns to Visa to Advance Cloud-First Strategy in APAC

Issuer processor Thredd has turned to Visa to advance its Asia-Pacific cloud strategy.

The company announced Wednesday (June 24) the implementation of Visa Cloud Connect in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, allowing companies to access Visa’s VisaNet global payment network via a cloud-based infrastructure.

“For Thredd, the implementation is part of a wider shift away from traditional data centre hardware toward end-to-end cloud-native infrastructure, including direct cloud connectivity into the network,” the company said in a news release.

“This reduces reliance on third-party intermediaries and gives Thredd greater control over the performance, monitoring and resilience of its platform.”

Damien Gough, head of APAC at Thredd, noted that the pace of change happening in areas like AI, agentic commerce, and multi-rail payments means that infrastructure needs to be able to quickly evolve along with changing consumer behavior, regulatory requirements and new types of commerce.

“Visa Cloud Connect helps position us to support that shift with a more modern, resilient and operationally flexible connectivity model across the region,” he said.

The new connection supports Thredd’s hosted model in Asia Pacific, letting FinTechs, digital banks and other digital-first businesses to leverage Thredd-managed infrastructure without needing to develop and maintain their own direct environment.

“This model is particularly well suited for organisations prioritizing speed of execution, simplified deployment and access to Thredd’s regional operating infrastructure,” the release added.

Thredd signed an agreement to connect with VCC last year, saying it would eliminate the need for multiple regional integrations and will help its customers enter new geographies.

PYMNTS collaborated with Thredd on a recent edition of “The ABCs of AI Credit: A Playbook for Issuers,” which examined the role artificial intelligence (AI) agents are playing in a shift in credit/payment decision-making.

“Rather than acting as gatekeepers, these agents function as a cognitive layer embedded directly into payment flows, evaluating transactions in milliseconds using behavioral signals and real-time data,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this year. “This enables more adaptive, context-aware transaction intelligence.”

This has had an immediate impact on issuer performance. Traditional fraud controls often halt legitimate transactions that fall outside predefined patterns, causing false declines and lost revenue. AI agents look at a broader set of signals to separate genuine behavioral changes from high-risk activity, boosting authorization rates while preventing fraud.

“Just as important, they introduce flexibility into transaction logic,” the report added. “Instead of a binary ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ issuers can trigger real-time alerts, adjust limits dynamically or step up verification when needed—balancing security with a smoother customer experience.”