Credit and finance for MSMEs: Digital payments company Visa has partnered with Singapore-headquartered cross-border payments company Thunes to help particularly unbanked individuals and small businesses in emerging markets send money where digital wallets are gaining traction. Visa said the tie-up will allow moving money internationally to 78 digital wallet providers, reaching 1.5 billion digital wallets across 44 countries and territories.

The integration with Thunes’ B2b payments platform will expand Visa Direct’s (direct payment service to a Visa card) reach to nearly 7 billion endpoints including more than 3 billion cards and over 2 billion accounts.

“From an agricultural worker in Bangladesh to a young professional in London who is looking to send money to family overseas, Visa strives to create more ways for individuals and SMBs to participate in the global economy,” said Ruben Salazar Genovez, Global Head of Visa Direct in a statement. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Thunes and help enable quick and simple access to the financial system to more customers around the world who may use digital wallets as their primary financial instrument.” 

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Through a simple integration of Visa Direct, financial institutions, governments, neobanks and money transfer operators will be able to utilize the new functionality to enable consumers and small businesses to send funds to markets across Africa, Asia, and Latin America where wallets may be the go-to payment method, Visa said.

“Through the combined power of Visa’s scale and Thunes’ payment infrastructure, this collaboration has the potential to help develop a new global era for inclusive and accessible global payments,” said Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes. 

Founded in 2016, Thunes serves companies such as Uber, Deliveroo, Grab, PayPal and Remitly, enabling payments in 79 currencies and to 130 countries. In April 2022, Thunes acquired a controlling stake in anti-money laundering solutions company Tookitaki, which now enables the company’s advanced compliance, anti-fraud, and anti-money laundering (AML) capabilities.

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