Visa will directly process transactions and payments made by Standard Chartered customers – eliminating inconvenient and costly intermediaries – after the two financial entities agreed to partner.
- The partnership will facilitate cross-border transactions, which undergo multiple channels of inspection thus hindering instant payments.
- The bank has first launched the program in Singapore to evaluate its success rate before rolling it out in other jurisdictions in the coming months.
- Initially, Standard Chartered was the settlement bank for Visa in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore due to the institution’s high liquidity capacity for forex and market presence.
“We are delighted to build our existing partnership with Visa to deliver this innovative and future-ready cross-border payment network offering to our clients. We will join as a participant bank and as Visa’s new settlement partner for a set of currencies,” said Global Head of Cash at Standard Chartered, Philip Panaino.
The IMF reported this year that global costs for cross border transactions remain high, standing at 6.25%. The G20 intends to slash these costs down to below 3% by 2030.
The two entities will connect their Application Programming Interface (API), allowing them to benefit from their respective global networks.
“We are excited to be partnering with Standard Chartered to simplify and speed up transactions for their clients, cutting out middlemen and reducing costs for a more efficient and secure way to move money globally,” said Ben Ellis, Senior Vice President of Visa.
The desire to minimize transactional costs between countries has been an arena of interest for ambitious Fintech start-ups and cryptocurrency. There has been a reluctance in dealing with these channels due to safety and compliance concerns, pushing many customers to depend on traditional banking channels that slow, costlier, but safe.
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