With this new partnership, Visa will be able to send money to over 108 different digital wallet types and bank accounts across Asia and Africa, including Kenya, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Pakistan, by utilizing Thunes' network. Thunes is also putting Visa Direct's push-to-card functionality into practice, allowing payouts to be made to qualified Visa cards and accounts in more than 190 nations and territories.

As a key component of its strategy to attain that growth, Visa is expanding its partnership with Thunes to enable payouts to digital wallets and bank accounts. Visa estimates a $200 trillion market for global money movement flows (including B2B, B2C, P2P, and government disbursements).

Digital wallets are a simple, quick, and safe payment option that is becoming more and more well-liked. By 2026, it is anticipated that over 60% of the global population would be using them. As a result, an increasing number of banks—CIBC included in Canada, for example—are collaborating with Visa to enable digital wallets to make cross-border payouts. Interoperability between mobile wallets is becoming more and more important to these financial institutions in order to maximize payments to their commercial and consumer clients.

The two companies' current relationships are strengthened by their most recent endeavor. In order to expand Visa Direct's reach to 1.5 billion wallets, Visa and Thunes originally teamed up in October 2022. In July 2023, Thunes announced its Series C expansion round, in which Visa was a major investor.

At Visa, we're constructing the necessary infrastructure to let our partners easily transfer funds between any endpoint and any other endpoint. To achieve that aim, we must expand both our reach and the number of endpoints we now have—more than 8.5 billion—said Chris Newkirk, Global Head of Commercial & Money Movement Solutions at Visa. "By integrating with bank accounts, cards, and wallets, we're expanding the payment ecosystem with Thunes and eventually giving our joint clients more efficient payout capabilities.”
 

"Our partnership with Visa is more than just a financial investment," stated Floris de Kort, CEO of Thunes. As payment methods continue to digital, we are interacting with one other's networks, corridors, and payment systems. B2B cross-border payments at scale present a glaringly obvious untapped opportunity, and Thunes is thrilled to collaborate with Visa to make these new payment flows possible.