VISA and Western Union are expanding their cross-border money-movement partnership, doubling the number of countries where customers can send funds.

The agreement between the payments-network giant and wire-transfer company, which runs to 2031, allows customers to send money to eligible Visa cards and bank accounts in more than 40 countries, including Poland, Peru and Pakistan – up from 20 in 2020, according to a statement on Tuesday (Mar 5). Visa executives previewed the expanded relationship during an earnings call in January.

Past iterations of the partnership focused on serving consumers in North America and Europe, said Chris Newkirk, Visa’s head of commercial and money-movement solutions.

The new agreement expands the services “to be truly global,” he said. The partnership now covers Visa card issuance, integration between payments network Visa Direct and Western Union, and other services.

“People rely on remittances to send lifeline payments to their loved ones overseas. When we consider the urgency and need for accessibility, secure payment options with added convenience can make all the difference,” Newkirk said in the statement.

As part of the partnership, Visa and Western Union are also developing humanitarian disbursement programmes, including the issuance of prepaid cards.

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Visa has identified the commercial money-movement market as a US$200 trillion annual opportunity, a figure chief executive officer Ryan McInerney described as an “enormous number” on the January earnings call. BLOOMBERG