Visa (NYSE: V) announced it is partnering with PayPal and Venmo in order to pilot Visa+, an innovative service that aims to help individuals move money quickly and securely between different person-to-person (P2P) digital payment apps.
Later this year, Venmo and PayPal users in the US will be “able to start moving money seamlessly between the two platforms.”
Visa+ will “not require users to have a Visa card; instead, by setting up a personalized payment address linked to their Venmo or PayPal account, individuals using either app will be able to receive and send payments quickly and securely between the platforms.”
As part of a joint effort to build interoperability across payment platforms, Visa partners DailyPay, i2c, TabaPay and Western Union, will also “integrate Visa+ within their platforms.”
Through this collaboration, Visa+ will “expand its reach and enable more use cases, including gig, creator and marketplace payouts.” Participating digital wallets, neo-banks and other payment apps, “reaching millions of US users, will be able to enable interoperability through Visa+.”
Chris Newkirk, Global Head of New Payment Flows at Visa, said:
“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.”
According to industry group U.S. Faster Payments Council, interoperability is “considered one of the most important topics in the payments industry.”
Visa+ serves “as a bridge that helps bring a new level of convenience, simplicity and reach to the world of person-to-person payments.”
Kevin Coop, CEO, 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+.”
Ava Kelly, chief product officer for i2c Inc., added:
“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.”
As mentioned in the announcement, Visa+ is expected “to launch for US consumers with select partners in late 2023. General availability is planned for mid-2024.”