Fiserv, PayPal and Square Join Visa Direct Realtime Network

The ubiquity of realtime money transfers in the U.S. took a step forward with yesterday’s news that Visa Direct was partnering with such major players as PayPal, Fiserv, and Square.

Fiserv became one of the many companies choosing to partner with Visa for faster and more secure payment services, it was announced yesterday. The list also includes PayPal, Square, and Ingo Money. Fiserv, the first company to leverage the Visa Direct platform for P2P, is also offering Visa Direct in its Popmoney P2P payments service and Popmoney Small Business personal payments services.

Visa has issued 200 million debit cards in the U.S. alone.

The importance of partnerships in money transfer services should not be underestimated. Interoperability is essential for funds to actually move from point to point in real time.

This development follows the partnerships between Early Warning’s clearXchange and PayPal that fintech followers heard about on August 2. 

“With the largest base of debit cards in the country and connections to non-Visa debit cards, Visa Direct provides an unmatched combination of ubiquity, cost-efficiency and speed for companies looking to offer realtime payments to anyone,” said Jack Forestell, senior vice president of global product, Visa, in the company’s press release.

But wait — isn’t Venmo, a PayPal service, already realtime? 

“In Venmo, I could use my card to push money into my Venmo account, which happens in realtime, but if I wanted to cash out it could take awhile,” said Visa Senior Vice President and Head of Push Payments Cecilia Frew.  “Now, users will instantly be able to withdraw their money [using Visa Direct].”