Visa launches new products and partnerships for Asia-Pacific

Visa launches new products and partnerships for Asia-Pacific

Visa launched new products and partnerships to drive flexibility, security, and acceptance for Asia-Pacific at the Visa Asia Pacific Media Showcase in Singapore on May 30.

Axel Boye-Moller, head of value added services at Visa Asia Pacific

Visa continues to expand its product portfolio with solutions designed to support the evolving payment needs of consumers and businesses across Asia-Pacific.

Visa has been facilitating cryptocurrency transactions for over five years and is now expanding its offering to include stablecoin-backed cards, settlement, and programmable money. On and off-ramps via stablecoin-backed cards allow consumers to use their Visa credentials to buy stablecoins with fiat currency and pay with stablecoin across Visa-accepting merchant locations. In Asia-Pacific, Visa is partnering with DCS Singapore, DTC Pay, and StraitsX on stablecoin-backed cards that support conversion through regulated infrastructure.

Visa enables seven-day-a-week settlement for stablecoins. Visa has settled more than $225 million to date in stablecoin volume that has been settled through Visa across participating clients. In Asia-Pacific, Visa is working with StraitsX for stablecoin settlement.

Through the Visa Tokenised Asset Platform (VTAP), Visa provides a platform for its partners to issue and manage fiat-backed tokens, offering interconnectivity to public and private blockchains, enabling programmable financing, trading of tokenised assets, and facilitating cross-border money movement. Visa is looking to expand the availability of VTAP to more partners later this year and into 2026.

Visa’s Flex Credential, a next-generation card that allows users to toggle between debit, credit, and reward points, continues to gain traction in Asia-Pacific. Visa first launched Flex in partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company (SMCC), known as Olive, two years ago in Japan. Today, more than 5 million Olive account holders are benefitting from the Visa Flex Credential. The Olive card continues to outperform, with cardholder transactions averaging 40 per cent higher than the national average in Japan over the past year.

Visa and SMCC have expanded the Visa Flex Credential to support small businesses with the flexibility to switch between business and personal accounts using the same Olive card, enhancing access to credit and cash flow management. The early adopters of this technology in Vietnam are ACB, VIB, and VPBank.

TR Ramachandran, head of products and solutions at Visa Asia Pacific

In addition, Visa is launching new services and partnerships to make it easier for consumers, merchants, and businesses in Asia-Pacific to pay and get paid.

Visa Pay, a service designed to connect any participating wallet to any Visa-accepting merchant, local or international, in-store or online, has launched across Asia-Pacific, home to the largest number of digital wallet users. Through partnerships with leading players including LINE Pay in Taiwan, Maya in the Philippines, OpenRice in Hong Kong, and Woori Card in South Korea, Visa is expanding access to its global network, giving consumers more ways to pay globally by tapping, scanning, or online.

Digital Identity – this suite of solutions includes Passkeys, Tap to Confirm, and enhanced data which are meant to identify and authenticate digital users. These solutions will reduce friction for consumers by being digitally native, while improving payment security and authorisation rates with enhanced transaction data and state-of-the-art fraud prevention techniques. New partners in the region include Coles, a supermarket chain in Australia, and Maybank, a financial services provider in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

Visa Accept is a new solution that allows micro-sellers to receive payments directly to their eligible Visa debit card using any NFC-enabled smartphone. Launched in Vietnam with Sacombank and VPBank, the service supports microentrepreneurs and informal sellers such as street vendors, freelancers, and small service providers. Participating banks will enable cardholders to accept contactless payments through their bank’s mobile app.

VIR