Visa expands Fintech Fast Track in Europe; accelerates new ways to pay and be paid

Visa’s Fintech Fast Track programme is designed to enable the next generation of fintechs to join Visa’s network and build innovative digital commerce experiences for consumers and merchants

Fast Track programme grows 360% year-over-year, and supports the creation of payment innovations like digital wallets, Business to Business (B2B) and digital currency payments

London – November 18, 2020 – The way Europeans pay and get paid is changing rapidly as consumers and merchants across the region embrace contactless, mobile and online payments for their everyday purchases. As money management and commerce experiences go digital, fintechs are playing an important role in the development of new, secure ways for consumers and merchants to pay and get paid. To provide increased support for the fintech ecosystem, Visa today announced new components of its fintech Fast Track programme:

1. A Partner Toolkit to help fintechs accelerate growth and better serve their customers.

2. A certification programme called Visa Ready for Fintech Enablers, which makes it easier for fintechs to connect with certified[1] partners for digital issuance and other key services.

Leading fintechs around the world are increasingly choosing to work with Visa across key categories including digital wallets, digital banking, ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’, B2B payments, cross-border remittance, bill payments, payments infrastructure, and person-to-person payments. Recent examples of fintechs partnering with Visa include Bankable (UK), Conotoxia (Poland), Enfuce (Finland), ininal (Turkey), Modulr (UK), PayPal (US), Railsbank (UK) and Vivid Money (Germany) among many others.

With the expansion of Visa’s industry leading Fast Track programme, fintechs are armed with the tools to become category winners. Fast Track participation has grown 360% globally year-over-year, and Visa has welcomed hundreds of fintechs[2] who are actively engaged in the programme.

“It’s thrilling to see fintech partners utilise our programmes and network to digitise financial services and improve the lives of the consumers and businesses they touch,” said Jana Lvova, Head of Fintech, Europe, Visa. “Through the Fast Track programme, we’re providing fintechs with a simple set of tools to bring their products to life. The resources we provide, such as online licensing and card design, have helped make Fast Track the leading programme for fintechs.”

Introducing the Fast Track Partner Toolkit
Visa has introduced a Fast Track Partner Toolkit designed specifically for fintech partners who onboard with the programme. The toolkit was created to accelerate a company’s growth and provides extraordinary access to Visa’s experts in strategy, marketing, design, risk management, and more. Through the toolkit, partners can leverage educational resources like payments boot camps to help upskill a company’s knowledge of the industry, tap into key strategic resources to craft customised benchmarking studies and utilise Visa’s online card design tools to help build and launch a card into market quickly.

Powering the Digital Issuance Journey with Visa Ready
Visa Ready certification for “Fintech Enablers” is designed to help technology companies build and launch payment solutions that meet Visa's global standards around security and functionality. These companies are in turn helping fintechs around the world build their own products by providing the solutions and expertise they need to get up and running.

Available today, Visa Ready for Fintech Enablers establishes a certified ecosystem of partners who are experts in the capabilities fintechs need to launch and operate products effectively on the Visa network. Recently, the Visa Ready programme has added several new partners operating in Europe. New certified processing partners include BPC Radar Payments (Global), FIS (Global), Thredd (formerly GPS) (Global), i2c (Global) and Marqeta (Global). Similarly, Visa has certified European BIN sponsors that help stand up programmes for fintechs including Nium (APAC, EU) and Railsbank (APAC, EU).

Fast Track Experiences

Of the hundreds of global companies now part of the programme, some of the most recent innovators to join Fast Track include:

• Digital Wallets: Working with companies like Conotoxia (Poland), gohenry (UK), ininal (Turkey), Lydia (France), Paycell (Turkey) VIPPS (Norway), Vivid Money (Germany) and Yapeal (Switzerland). Visa is expanding access to digital payments by meeting evolving consumer preferences for managing their money – and transforming some formerly closed-loop systems limited to certain geographies or functionalities into open ones, giving users greater choice, security and utility.
• Advancing Financial Inclusion and Social Impact: Ensuring that consumers and businesses in all parts of the world have access to the financial tools and products to improve their lives is core to Visa’s mission. Companies like Enfuce (Finland) are helping consumers understand the carbon footprint of their purchases, while Tomorrow (Germany) aims to bring change to the mobile banking sector through its commitment to climate protection, sustainability and economic change.
• B2B Payments: Visa is transforming B2B payments, a segment that represents $120 trillion in opportunity[3], in its work with Fast Track members in every corner of the world, including our European partners such as Airwallex (UK), Modulr (UK) and Payhawk (Bulgaria, Germany).
• Digital Currency Advancement: Visa is working closely with companies like Crypto.com (UK) and eToro Money (UK) to connect digital currencies and its existing network of 61 million merchants.
• New Enablement Partners: Fast Track is made possible due to collaborations with enablement partners who lay the foundation for fintechs to build their products. In Europe alone, Bankable (UK), Contis (UK), Modulr (UK), Param (Turkey) and Solarisbank (Germany) are amongst Visa’s enablement partners around the world.

The enhancements to Visa’s fintech Fast Track programme comes soon after the launch of Visa Fintech Partner Connect, a new initiative that provides financial institutions and merchants in Europe with a suite of innovative solutions combining Visa’s own capabilities with those of carefully selected fintech partners.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Comments from Partners:

“Visa Ready highlights Visa’s commitment to fintech by signposting vetted partners that are able to help fintechs, digital banks and e-wallet providers build and launch innovative payment solutions,” said Joanne Dewar, CEO, Global Processing Services (GPS). “The global Visa Ready status reinforces GPS’ position as the trusted and proven PayTech PioneerTM, powering the growth journeys of fintechs, digital banks and e-wallet providers around the world and accelerating the global progress towards providing better financial experiences for everyone.”

“Today, the ability to pay digitally is no longer just a convenience but a necessity and with Vipps being the leading digital wallet in Norway, reaching 3.8 million users, we are core to ensuring citizens are able to send, pay and receive money at the touch of a button,” said Rune Garborg, CEO, Vipps. “With Visa, we are enabling issuing banks to offer smarter and simplified digital payment services to their customers in Europe and beyond. Together with Visa, we are able to leverage our joint expertise, and experience to give consumers and businesses access to secure, digital commerce, regardless of where they live or what mobile device they have.”

For more information on Visa programmes and resources built for the fintech community, visit here.

About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit our website (www.visa.co.uk), blog (https://www.visa.co.uk/visa-everywhere/blog.html), and @VisaUK.

[1] Visa Ready partners are vetted and certified based on a specific set of criteria including, but not limited to, their ability to support digital issuance, ability to support multi-tenant architecture and ability to manage risk, among other capabilities.

[2] Visa Fast Track Global Data, September 2020

[3] Visa Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript