TORONTO – May 8, 2018: Visa (NYSE: V) today announced it is expanding Visa Direct – a real-time push payments platform that allows companies to leverage Visa’s global network to transform domestic and cross-border payments to businesses and consumers, in Canada. Peoples Payment Solutions, in working with TELUS Health and Payment Solutions, will be among the first companies in Canada to leverage the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) solution to better serve their customers with quick, simple and secure payments.
Fund disbursements represent a major opportunity in Canada. Recent research by the Aite Group estimates that funds disbursements to consumers and small businesses to be an approximately $1.1 trillion CAD opportunity. The study also found that 62 per cent of consumers and 96 per cent of merchants would be likely to opt in for a real-time payment method if it were available.
“Expanding Visa Direct in Canada is an important milestone in our journey to transform the way consumers and businesses around the world pay each other,” said Brian Weiner, Vice President and Head of Product, Visa Canada. “Companies like Peoples Payment Solutions and TELUS Health and Payment Solutions are helping us modernize payments in industries like healthcare and insurance by creating a faster and more seamless payment experience for their customers. Visa Direct is changing the way we use cards by re-imagining payments for the digital age.”
Real-Time Payment
Once in market, Peoples Payment Solutions and TELUS Health’s Health Benefits Management platform, powered by Visa Direct, will enable push payments directly into a customer’s Visa debit account in real-time. This will significantly speed up funds disbursements for patients who are, for example, submitting benefits claims from healthcare professionals, shortening it to instant reimbursement versus waiting several days to a week for payout.
“Working with innovative companies like Visa and Peoples Payment Solutions allows us to lead the way in providing an even better, faster benefit claims experience for our insurance partners and ultimately, plan members,” said Luc Vilandré, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, TELUS Health and Payment Solutions. “Leveraging the power of real-time technology to disburse funds instantly is far more efficient for patients and removes an unnecessary layer of complexity, enhancing the overall benefits experience.”
“We are first in Canada to bring the Visa Direct solution directly to fintechs, SMBs, and enterprise customers. Working in conjunction with technology leaders, like Visa and TELUS Health, we can now offer a comprehensive set of APIs that enable businesses to send real-time payments to Visa debit cards in Canada," said Howard Klein, President at Peoples Payment Solutions. "We are seeing continued innovation in the payments landscape, and at Peoples Payment Solutions, we are demonstrating our ability to lead with emerging technology.”
Expanding Visa Direct-based disbursements in Canada
Visa Direct transforms payments by creating a convenient and frictionless way to send and receive money, regardless of borders or location. The Visa Direct platform is already available in more than 200 markets around the world, and enables a range of real-time payment use cases backed by the security and scale of Visa’s global payment network, including:
- Business-to-business: enabling businesses to pay freelancers, contractors, and other small businesses – in real time.
- Business-to-consumer: enabling businesses to send almost any kind of payment directly to a bank account – such as insurance payouts and real-time merchant settlement.
- Person-to-person: enabling consumers to pay each other quickly, conveniently, and securely, often through their connected devices – such as when splitting bills or giving gifts.
The Visa Direct person-to-person payments capabilities have been live in the Canadian market since 2013.
For more information about Visa Direct, visit: https://usa.visa.com/partner-with-us/payment-technology/visa-direct.html.