KARACHI: Visa has announced new capabilities under Visa Accept and Visa Direct, aimed at helping small businesses in emerging markets accept and send digital payments through smartphones, according to a statement on Tuesday.
Visa Accept converts a smartphone into a card terminal, enabling micro sellers to accept tap-to-pay or pay-by-link transactions through their Visa debit or prepaid accounts without additional hardware, with funds reaching seller accounts in near real-time.
The service is live in more than 25 countries, including with HNB in Sri Lanka, Banco Agromercantil de Guatemala, and Vietnam’s SACOMBANK and VPBank, with banks in Kenya and Ghana set to launch soon.
Visa Direct, meanwhile, allows SMB owners to send real-time payouts to staff, contractors and customers, including cross-border transfers, from the same banking app.
Shahebaz Khan, Visa’s regional commercial solutions head, said the goal is to let a single smartphone handle acceptance, insights and business management.
