Thunes, a provider of cross-border payment solutions, has announced an expansion of its strategic partnership with Visa. The collaboration aims to introduce new endpoints in crucial markets across Asia and Africa.

Expanding Access to Digital Wallets and Bank Accounts

The enhanced collaboration involves Visa leveraging Thunes’ network to facilitate payments to over 108 different digital wallet types and bank accounts across several countries in Africa and Asia, including key markets like Kenya, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Additionally, Thunes is integrating Visa Direct’s push-to-card capability, allowing for seamless payouts to eligible Visa cards and accounts spanning 190+ countries and territories.

Chris Newkirk, the Global Head of Commercial & Money Movement Solutions at Visa, commented: “At Visa, we’re building the infrastructure to enable our partners to move money from any endpoint, to any endpoint, seamlessly. Broadening both our reach and number of endpoints, more than 8.5B today, is crucial to achieving that goal. Together with Thunes, we’re broadening the payment ecosystem by connecting to bank accounts, cards, and wallets, ultimately bringing more streamlined payouts capabilities to our joint clients."

Visa's projection of a $200 trillion market for global money transfers highlights the immense potential for growth in this sector, encompassing various transaction types such as B2B, B2C, P2P, and government disbursements. By broadening its collaboration with Thunes to enable payouts to digital wallets and bank accounts, Visa aims to solidify its position in capturing this burgeoning market opportunity.

Enhancing Global Payment Accessibility

The burgeoning popularity of digital wallets, characterized by their ease of use, speed, and security, has been underscored by projections indicating that over 60% of the world's population is expected to embrace them by 2026.

Consequently, an increasing number of financial institutions, including prominent entities like CIBC in Canada, are partnering with Visa to integrate cross-border payout capabilities into digital wallets. This trend underscores the growing recognition of mobile wallet interoperability as a crucial mechanism for optimizing payments for both consumers and businesses.

This latest initiative builds upon the existing collaborative efforts between Thunes and Visa. The partnership, initially forged in October 2022 to extend Visa Direct’s reach to 1.5 billion wallets, has since evolved into a multifaceted alliance aimed at driving innovation and accessibility in cross-border payments.

“Our partnership with Visa is more than just a financial investment. We’re engaging with each other’s networks, corridors and payment methods as payments continue to digitize. There is a crystal clear, untapped opportunity for B2B cross-border payments at scale, and Thunes is delighted to work with Visa to enable these new payment flows,” said, Floris de Kort, the CEO of Thunes.