Visa partners with PayPal, Venmo to launch interoperable P2P payments offering

Visa has announced its partnership with several payments and financial service companies in introducing an interoperable peer-to-peer (P2P) payment product- Visa+. The offering will allow individuals to transfer funds seamlessly even in instances where the recipient uses a different payment platform. Among its initial partners are Venmo and PayPal.

Visa+ launch

When both the sender and recipient are using the same payment platform, it is usually a straightforward process. This is not often the case when the involved parties are using different P2P payment companies. As such, Visa+ is seeking to deal with the complexities that arise in the latter scenario.

Later in the year, PayPal and Venmo customers within the US will be able to transfer funds between the two platforms. As it stands, one cannot make a transaction between the two entities in real-time despite PayPal owning Venmo.

With Visa+, the individuals in a PayPal/Venmo transaction won’t need to have a Visa card linked to these accounts. Instead, one will need to have a unique payment handle linked to their Venmo or PayPal account. Subsequently, they will share the handle with the payments’ sender. As such, there will be no need to avail personal details like email address and phone number.

In addition to PayPal and Venmo, companies like Western Union, DailyPay, i2C, and TabaPay have committed to Visa+. By integrating the service into their platforms, such entities will fuel interoperability.

Visa acknowledges that this commitment will facilitate the extension of Visa+ to several use cases. This includes online marketplaces as well as event and creator economies. Granted, major firms like Apple, Google, and Cash App are not part of the initial list of Visa’s partners. However, with Visa+ furthering the emerging trend of interoperability, more entities may join the list prior to its rollout.

With regards to the new service, Visa’s global head of new payment flows, Chris Newkirk noted, “We are thrilled to partner with like-minded innovators to broaden the reach of P2P payments across platforms”.