Visa Inc. has started a pilot program that lets banks, remittance providers, and other financial institutions use pre-funded stablecoins for cross-border payments. The program is intended to make international transfers quicker and reduce the need for holding large sums of cash in different countries.
The initiative uses Visa Direct, the company’s real-time payment platform, alongside Circle Internet Group Inc.’s USDC and EURC stablecoins. According to Mark Nelsen, Head of Product for Visa’s commercial and money movement solutions, the program addresses a key challenge for clients: underfunded accounts that can delay payments to end customers.
“Today, a remittance company, for example, must maintain pre-funded accounts in each of the markets where it operates in preparation for customer withdrawal requests. If the company gets more requests than expected and can’t fund all of them, it runs the risk of service interruptions,” Nelsen said.
“We’re giving this immediate ability to get money to the accounts in real time. It’s a more efficient use of capital so you can deploy it as needed as opposed to having to deploy two or three days’ worth of money in one stop.”
Visa Direct currently supports payments to around 11 billion Visa cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets across 195 countries. The stablecoin integration lets clients fund accounts globally in real time and avoid delays caused by traditional systems, especially during weekends or holidays.
Stablecoins expand beyond crypto
Cross-border payments have been a frequent use case for stablecoins since Visa began integrating them in 2021. These digital tokens, often pegged to currencies like the U.S. dollar, are intended to keep their value relatively stable. Stablecoins are being used to complete some transactions more quickly, while existing payment systems remain in place.
To date, Visa has handled more than $225 million in stablecoin transactions. Although this is only a small part of the $16 trillion in total payments the company handled in fiscal 2024, it is indicative of the gradual adoption of stablecoins in specific areas.
Apart from cross-border remittances, Visa Direct is used for paying gig workers internationally and for providing crypto exchanges with the ability to process withdrawals quickly.
Regulatory clarity drives adoption
The pilot program comes as stablecoins see wider acceptance, particularly after the U.S. passed the GENIUS Act, which provides clear rules for issuers. “The Genius Act changed everything. It made everything so much more legitimate. Before that regulatory clarity, all the big institutions were sort of on the fence,” Nelsen said.
While stablecoins have raised concerns about affecting banks and payment networks, Visa’s program focuses on integrating them into existing systems rather than replacing them.
“The amount of software and technology that’s been deployed globally for payments is hard to recreate. So it seems more likely to just incorporate stablecoin technology into existing flows,” Nelsen added.
Visa is working with a number of partners for the pilot and expects to expand the program next year.
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