Visa and LemFi Expand Partnership on Cross-Border Payments

Visa Cross-Border Solutions and LemFi have expanded their existing partnership globally.

This partnership brings together the capabilities of Visa Cross-Border Solutions, which is a Visa division specializing in cross-border money movement, and LemFi, which is a U.K.-headquartered remittance firm, the companies said in a Wednesday (March 20) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

“The combination of our expertise and our technology platform puts us in a very strong position to expand internationally in the coming months and years,” Ridwan Olalere, CEO and co-founder of LemFi, said in the release. “Visa’s speed-to-market, transparency and scalability will be instrumental as we extend our services worldwide.”

With the new global expansion deal, LemFi will be able to extend its reach into China, India, Pakistan and other new markets around the globe, with Visa Cross-Border Solutions becoming its primary partner in facilitating cross-border transactions, according to the release.

The Visa division will also continue as LemFi’s preferred provider of ePayments and foreign exchange (FX) services, supporting remittances for hundreds of thousands of U.K.-based citizens from various African countries, the release said.

The expanded partnership will also allow Visa to provide debit and prepaid debit cards to more than 250,000 users in the U.K. and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, per the release said.

“LemFi is doing incredible work with nationals from countries in Africa — and we know the enormous impact that remittances have in that part of the world,” Piers Marais, head of product at Visa Cross-Border Solutions, said in the release. “The next step for them to grow as a business is for them to take that expertise and apply it globally.”

Visa Cross-Border Solutions has also seen growing demand for its offerings in the cross-border B2B market, where ongoing innovations in payments and technology are overcoming historically intractable problems ranging from dauntingly complex local regulations to fragmented payment infrastructures.

“The cross-border B2B market is growing massively,” Neil Drennan, chief technology officer at Visa Cross-Border Solutions, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in November 2023. That means there are more businesses looking to “[move money around the world] quickly and transparently, with complete clarity around costs — what the FX rates and fees are,” Drennan added.