Visa and Crown Agents Bank Launch ‘Last-Mile’ Payments Partnership

Visa and Crown Agents Bank (CAB) are targeting the “last mile” of the payments process.

The two firms were already working together, with Visa relying on CAB to provide foreign exchange liquidity when settling high-value payments — like bank-to-bank transfers, or payments between large institutions — in certain jurisdictions, according to a Thursday (Aug. 29) press release.

Now, CAB’s network will connect through API with Visa Direct, giving the bank’s customers a cost-effective way to move lower-value payments across emerging markets and settle them directly into an eligible card, account or wallet, the release said.

“For example, NGOs could more easily disburse funds and aid directly to recipients, remittance companies could more efficiently move money for their customers across hard-to-reach markets, and businesses could reduce the cost of making smaller value payments to creators and freelancers,” according to the release. “Making this type of low-value payment across emerging markets has historically been challenging due to the additional costs incurred in jurisdictions regulators consider higher risk.”

The integration will streamline the handling of high volumes of smaller transactions along the Visa Direct network, which reaches more than 8.5 billion endpoints — including accounts, digital wallets and eligible cards — across over 190 countries and territories, per the release.

“This collaboration is hugely significant for our clients,” CAB CEO Neeraj Kapur said in the release. “Our combined capabilities and expertise mean we’re able to reduce the cost and friction associated with moving money across hard-to-reach markets, getting more funds delivered more efficiently to those who need it the most.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Cross-Border Sales and the Challenge of Failed Payments” revealed that businesses looking to enter foreign markets often find that traditional cross-border payments are fraught with delays and complexities. There is a nearly 11% failure rate for cross-border payments, which accounted for $3.8 billion in lost sales in 2023 alone.

Additional PYMNTS Intelligence research in “The Treasury Management Playbook: Spotlight on Cross-Border Payments” found that 59% of corporate clients at Citi named speed as one of their biggest pain points in terms of cross-border transactions. Forty-seven percent cited cost, and 40% pointed to transparency as a key area of friction, as tracking and receipt information may be lacking in traditional payment methods such as wires.