Visa+

Yesterday Visa announced their new peer-to-peer payment aggregator, called Visa+. Initially the service will allow for payments between PayPal and Venmo, two popular payment apps in the US which are both owned by PayPal Holdings Inc. To reach a maximum number of customers, users don't need to have a Visa card to use the service.

After the initial linking of PayPal and Venmo, more companies will be added to the platform with Western Union, TabaPay, i2C, and DailyPay already agreeing to partner. Visa said that it plans to start making Visa+ available for consumers later this year, with general availability to follow in mid-2024, at which point I expect the list of compatible companies to be much longer.

Visa is already the 'rails' for most financial payments, so it makes sense that they are now using that technology to link payments between different fintech platforms. This move also ensures the long-term relevance of Visa. If the world moves away from cards, Visa will still be the system used to transfer money.