International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, is set to provide an unfunded risk participation facility of up to $200 million to Visa, according project documents seen by CrowdFund Insider.
The facility will cover settlement risk exposure on a portfolio of the payment network’s licensee financial institutions across Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Under the arrangement, IFC will absorb a portion of the credit settlement risk tied to a revolving reference portfolio of eligible Visa-issuing institutions in the region — primarily banks, but also non-bank financial institutions and fintechs.
The facility does not involve a direct disbursement of funds; rather, IFC will step in to cover settlement risk as needed on the reference portfolio, freeing up capacity for participating institutions.
The move is aimed at addressing capital and regulatory constraints that have limited some regional lenders’ ability to fully participate in global payment ecosystems.
That gap has left millions of consumers and local merchants reliant on cash and excluded from the convenience and efficiency of digital payments, the disclosure said.
By assuming part of the settlement risk, IFC said the facility should allow more institutions to extend card-based and digital payment services to underserved segments, including small business owners, women entrepreneurs and people historically outside the formal financial system.
Visa operates VisaNet, one of the world’s largest electronic payment processing networks, connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and governments for credit, debit, prepaid, digital, and mobile transactions.
Beyond core payment processing, the company provides authorization, clearing and settlement services, cross-border payment and currency-conversion capabilities, and a suite of value-added offerings spanning risk management, data analytics, advisory, and customer engagement.
Visa has also been expanding investment in emerging technologies, including tokenization, artificial intelligence and advanced authentication tools, intended to strengthen the security and accessibility of digital payments.
Visa now operates in more than 200 countries and territories. For the twelve months ended June 2026, its network processed approximately $17.9 trillion in payment volume, intermediating 274.8 billion transactions and supporting more than 5.2 billion cards worldwide.
The IFC-backed facility is expected to be deployed throughout the Latin America and Caribbean region, with the reference portfolio structured to revolve as underlying exposures mature and are replaced.
