Tencent joins Visa to enable remittances to digital wallets via Visa Direct

By Gloria Mathias

Visa and Tencent Financial Technology, the FinTech division of Tencent, a global internet company, have announced their partnership to enable Weixin users to receive inbound remittances in their digital wallets.

This partnership will extend the Visa Direct network to reach more than one billion Weixin users in Mainland of China.

“Digital wallets as a receiving endpoint in cross-border transfers are growing rapidly”, said Shirley Yu, Group General Manager at Visa Greater China. “Some of the world’s largest inbound remittance markets in the Asia Pacific region, including Greater China, India, the Philippines, and Bangladesh, have the highest penetration of digital wallets, making wallets a critical receiving endpoint for cross-border remittance. Wallets are also a crucial conduit for greater financial inclusion to reach populations that may not have access to traditional banking services.”

The partnership between Visa and Tencent Financial Technology builds on Visa’s previously announced collaborations with Thunes and TerraPay, who have also implemented Visa Direct capabilities. Visa Direct provides a single point of access to billions of endpoints, helping transform global money movement by facilitating the delivery of funds to eligible cards, bank accounts, and wallets around the world.

“Our partnership with Visa is a significant step forward in fostering a new generation of global payment networks. By connecting with Visa Direct’s client network of financial institutions, we can now seamlessly connect customers from these institutions to Weixin users from Visa Direct eligible markets,” said Royal Chen, Vice President of Tencent Financial Technology.

“The connection not only opens up Tencent’s own ecosystem while meeting compliance requirements but also streamlines the work for our partners and bridges the gap between different financial ecosystems, making sending money as easy as sending a message. This synergy of specialised expertise and collaboration allows us to have the opportunity to create a new, open, diverse, and inclusive borderless payment network together,” added Chen.

Tenpay Global, Tencent Financial Technology’s cross-border payment business, enables global FinTech institutions to connect with Weixin’s open ecosystem by leveraging standard APIs and powerful global fund processing capabilities.