CARD.com Taps Visa Direct to Expand Financial Services Globally

CARD.com now enables its users to make cross-border payments via Visa Direct.

This offering results from a collaboration between CARD.com, which is a FinTech specializing in mobile banking and card payments, and Visa, the companies said in a Monday (Dec. 16) press release.

CARD.com users can now benefit from card-based payments in more than 180 countries and territories, account transfers in more than 90 countries and wallet transactions in more than 50 countries, according to the release.

“This collaboration allows us to expand our financial services on a global scale, offering fast, convenient and secure international payment options to meet the needs of our growing user base,” CARD.com CEO Paul Neustaedter said in the release.

Visa Direct is powered by a global infrastructure and real-time payment capabilities that enable fast remittances, secure transfers and enhanced control over cross-border transactions, per the release.

“Visa Direct is transforming how people move money around the world, and we are excited to partner with CARD.com to deliver an improved cross-border payment experience,” Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, senior vice president and global head of Visa Direct, said in the release. “Together, we’re helping connect people globally with a reliable, fast and secure way to send and receive money.”

Payment networks like Visa have been making strides to move their networks beyond cards, and facilitating payments, toward payouts underpinned by globally trusted infrastructure, PYMNTS reported Monday.

Visa announced Thursday (Dec. 12) that it will begin enabling faster delivery of money with Visa Direct, making funds transferred to U.S. bank accounts available within one minute.

This capability will begin next April, allowing consumers, businesses and governments to use Visa Direct to deposit money to bank accounts linked to eligible debit cards in real time.

Visa reported in October that Visa Direct transactions grew by 38% in its fiscal fourth quarter to 2.8 billion and that the year’s total number of Visa Direct transactions reached almost 10 billion.

Real-time and digital-first solutions are among the best ways to address the pain points and alleviate frictions in global money movement, which include speed, cost and transparency, Gonzalez-Ore told PYMNTS in an interview posted in November 2023.