Visa Unveils FinTech Partnership Program In Europe

Visa

Visa is rolling out a new initiative aimed at connecting European financial institutions and merchants with cutting-edge digital payments services.

Fintech Partner Connect will “support new ways for businesses and consumers to seamlessly and securely pay, get paid, send money and more,” a spokesperson for the credit card and financial services giant said in an email announcing the new program on Visa on Wednesday (Nov. 11).

In particular, Visa said it is teaming with 13 different FinTech “solutions” in Europe it believes are the “forefront of this technology.”

The launch comes after a successful pilot program, Visa noted, with the focus of the chosen FinTechs ranging from small business credit risk and buy now, pay later to merchant search and transaction compliance.

Mark Nelsen, senior vice president at Visa for Europe product, noted the offering comes at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the shift toward online payments and banking, not to mention online shopping as well.

The latest edition of PYMNTS and Visa’s How We Will Pay consumer survey finds that consumers are staying digital even as the brick-and-mortar economy slowly comes back to life, with an emerging preference for online commerce due convenience and comfort.

“The popularity and need for digital payments and online banking has never been greater with the global pandemic accelerating this shift in behaviour,” Nelson said. “This means that financial institutions and businesses of all sizes are looking for ways to rapidly develop their offerings.”

The line-up of Visa’s new European FinTech solutions includes Consumer Digital Journey with 11:FS Pulse, a research and benchmarking platform; Consumer Credit Insight with Aire, pioneering the use of first-party data in credit scoring; SME Credit Risk with AccountScore, using open banking technology; Buy Now and Pay Later with ChargeAfter, enabling merchants to offer personalized and instant financing; SME Data with Codat, connecting small businesses to banks; Merchant Search powered by Snowdrop Solutions, for issuers to simplify transaction details; and Transaction Compliance with ComplyAdvantage.

Also included: Sustainable Banking with ecolytiq; Subscription Management with Minna Technologies; Digital Identity Verification with Onfido; Budgeting and Affordability with OpenWrks; Personalized Customer Engagement Platform with ; and Marketplace Payments and Escrow with Paycast.