With the global payments landscape rapidly evolving, there are increasing expectations for faster, more convenient solutions that optimise security and the user experience. As a result, payment networks, banks, technology companies and governments are racing to meet this demand.

While the payment landscape is rich with choice, alternative solutions are emerging to provide money remitters and businesses with the tools to enhance the overall payment experience and maximise the speed of money movement. Last year, Edgar, Dunn & Company (EDC) looked into Push to Card as a potential solution to address current gaps in the funds disbursement market as a part of market research commissioned by Visa. Push to Card is an out-of-the-box instant payment solution that runs on card rails and which is designed specifically for disbursements.

EDC has recently spoken to Sean Pitman, Head of Product Strategy & Commercialisation of Visa Direct in Europe, who has provided an overview of Push to Card payout solutions.

Please give us an overview of the Push-to-Card concept.

Push to Card is a process whereby money is sent to a debit or credit card belonging to an individual or business. It is a core element of Visa Direct Payouts, which allows Visa clients and partners around the world to use a single point of connection to push payments to eligible cards for domestic payouts, and eligible cards and/or accounts for cross border payments. This can support many use cases including domestic & cross border person-to-person (P2P), business-to-small business (B2SB), business-to-consumer (B2C) and government to consumer (G2C) payouts. Visa Direct can access over 5 billion cards and accounts combined across more than 200 geographies, supporting 160 currencies.

What are the top / most important elements that consumers and small businesses consider when receiving disbursements?

When people typically think of the most important elements in respect of receiving payments, speed overwhelmingly tops the list. However, it was clear from the recent European market research Visa conducted with Edgar, Dunn & Company that while the speed of receiving the payment was a key consideration, there were a number of other factors that consumers and small businesses considered at least as important. These included: safeguarding features to prevent fraud or error in the transfer; the availability and convenience of the solution – with funds credited 24/7/365 seen as highly important; and also there being a low cost to receive the payment, to name but a few. Visa Direct offers all of these elements, which explains why 61% of respondents to the research in both the consumer and business groups indicated that they would be likely to use it.

Where do you see key areas of growth for Visa Direct?

We see key growth areas over the next 5 years in the cross-border space – both P2P/remittances and payouts/disbursements. As Visa Direct enables the movement of money, transactions need to comply with the various money movement regulations. The team at Visa Direct has worked extremely hard over the past few years to enable the eco-system, optimising transaction acceptance and ensuring that transactions are sent in a safer and more secure way, with the relevant data included to enable sanction screening. We believe we are now at the beginning of a big surge in cross-border transactions, as businesses and consumers realise that with Visa Direct they can send money instantly, more safely and for a fraction of the cost of the alternatives.

At the end of the day, users are less concerned about the payment method and more concerned about the experience, scale and reliability of a solution. The payment landscape is rich with choice, and all stakeholders in the disbursement payment value chain should be aware of alternative new solutions, such as Push to Card, which could address these gaps.

To find out more about how faster payments and customer expectations are developing in Europe and have helped large merchants improve their customer experience, join Nicky Alexander (Head of Visa Direct EU) and Martin Koderisch (Principal, London) for a webinar on 7 April 2022. Register to the webinar HERE

The content of this article does not reflect the official opinion of Edgar, Dunn & Company. The information and views expressed in this publication belong solely to the author(s).

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