Visa and TransferWise, a London-based online money transfer service, announced a global partnership and the first use of Visa Cloud Connect.

This enables fintech startups and partners to securely connect to VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network, through the public cloud.

Visa Cloud Connect underpins a new global agreement between Visa and TransferWise that will enable the expansion of TransferWise’s multi-currency debit cards in Asia Pacific, Europe, LAC, the Middle East, U.K. and U.S.

The TransferWise multi-currency account allows consumers and businesses to hold and convert 55 currencies at the real exchange rate and its multi-currency debit card allows customers to spend and withdraw directly from any of the currency balances.

Expanding the offering into new markets would have previously required significant investment in local data centers, telecommunications infrastructure and specialised payment hardware.

With Visa Cloud Connect, TransferWise can quickly establish a secure connection to VisaNet through its cloud provider, eliminating the need for costly local connectivity and speeding up TransferWise’s roll out plans.

This builds on their existing partnership where Visa had added TransferWise to its suite of Visa Direct remittance partners in December 2019.

Visa Cloud Connect is currently in pilot phase with TransferWise and is slated for global availability for other clients in August 2021.

“The TransferWise team came to us last year with a challenge: enable the global rollout of their debit card program, and do it entirely in the cloud.

 

With Cloud Connect, we’ve created an approach that lets TransferWise tap into Visa’s global infrastructure, one of the most secure, reliable and resilient systems in the world, through a single integration. ”

said Jack Forestell, executive vice president and chief product officer, Visa.

“We’ve been working to remove borders in the world’s financial networks. Cards should work the same across borders too. In Visa we found a partner who shares our ambitions to make money work seamlessly no matter where you are.

 

We’re excited to see how the outcome of our collaboration impacts the next generation of multinational financial institutions across the globe.”

Kristo Käärmann, TransferWise co-founder and CEO.

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