To develop the next generation of digital payment solutions, Visa has unveiled its plan to expand its fast-track program to support fintechs in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region.
Already present in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific, the program provides innovative fintechs with a faster and easier integration process with VisaNet, Visa’s global network, in addition to numerous digital solutions and growth capabilities. After achieving successful launches in these regions in the second half of 2018, the program is now available to fintechs in CEMEA.
The Visa fast-track program, will allow fintechs based in CEMEA to access Visa’s global network in as little as four weeks. The program has been adapted to fill the needs of fintechs, adjusting to their realities and providing them with faster processes, which include reducing the number of onboarding conditions. The program also links them to platforms that are already certified by Visa and connects them to sponsoring banks, providing them with scaling opportunities through Visa’s global network.
According to Andrew Torre, Regional President, CEMEA, Visa, “The payments ecosystem is evolving at an unprecedented pace with some of the most exciting innovations coming from our region. We are actively engaged with passionate, entrepreneurial communities to understand where synergies exist in order to foster and bring new experiences to life in a secure and scalable manner in our pursuit of a digital future. Our aim is to connect new players and ideas with our network partners, so that we can deliver intuitive and relevant payment, banking and retail experiences to customers and merchants.”
The fintech fast-track program offers a new commercial framework that provides access to Visa’s payment capabilities, reduced fees and streamlined processes.
The program is added to a list of several Visa initiatives designed to support fintech and startup companies.
In fact, Visa is always in pursuit of new investments in companies that have the potential to advance digital payments for clients. Recent fintech investments globally have included Klarna, Paidy, Marqeta and PayStack in Nigeria.
Visa is also attracting many payment platforms and fintechs to collaborate with it on a global level to create new consumer and merchant experiences, including YellowPepper, NovoPayment, Stripe, Conductor, Flutterwave andRevolut.
Moreover, Visa’s Everywhere Initiative, a global innovation program that tasks startups with solving some of the most challenging issues in payments and commerce, has been running in CEMEA since 2017.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, Visa will work with Global Technology Partners (GTP), to design and enable turnkey end-to-end packaged solutions jointly for the Visa Fintech Fast Track program. The enterprise solution will include bin sponsorship, issuer processing services, acquirer QR code processing services and program management services.
Rich Bialek, CEO of GTP, said, “GTP is excited to work with Visa to bring new digital products to our banks and cardholders. Fintech companies in the CEMEA region are developing innovative solutions to meet the needs of this rapidly growing consumer base. By expanding the fast-track program to CEMEA, Visa and GTP will enable these companies to rapidly deliver new technologies and services to consumers, improving and expanding how commerce works in this dynamic market.”
