Visa has announced new capabilities across Visa Pay, Visa Accept, and Visa Direct, aimed at expanding how smartphones can be used to accept and send digital payments. The updates are designed to support small businesses in emerging markets, ranging from street vendors to online merchants, using tools they already have access to.
Turning smartphones into payment infrastructure
The initiative reflects a broader shift of commerce onto mobile devices, with Visa positioning the smartphone as a combined tool for payment acceptance, payouts, and customer interaction. According to Visa's Global SMB Macro Trends Report, 99% of surveyed small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) use at least one digital finance tool, and 85% said at least one tool had benefited their business. Visa also noted that approximately 530 million of the world's 1.3 billion unbanked adults already use smartphones, representing a potential base for expanded digital payment access. A company official said financial institutions, wallet providers, and platform partners play a role in helping small businesses participate in the digital economy through expanded acceptance and faster payouts.
Visa Accept: card acceptance without additional hardware
Visa Accept enables a smartphone to function as a card payment terminal, allowing sellers to accept card payments through a Visa debit or prepaid account without additional hardware. Buyers can pay via tap-to-pay or payment link, with funds reaching the seller's account on a near real-time basis. According to Visa's SMB report, one in five surveyed SMBs face cash-flow gaps on a daily or monthly basis, while around 28% reported difficulties using or applying for credit or borrowing tools in the past twelve months.
Visa Accept is currently available in more than 25 countries and is live with banking partners including HNB in Sri Lanka, Banco Agromercantil de Guatemala, and SACOMBANK and VPBank in Vietnam. Co-op Bank in Kenya, along with Access Bank, Omni Bank, and Universal Merchant Bank in Ghana, are expected to launch the service in the coming weeks. Visa said it expects Visa Accept to reach millions of merchants worldwide by 2027.
Visa Pay and Visa Direct extend wallet and payout reach
Visa Pay connects wallet providers and payment apps to Visa's network, allowing users to pay with existing credentials across online, in-app, and in-person channels at more than 175 million Visa-accepting merchant locations globally. Wallet providers can integrate with Visa Pay to access broader acceptance without building separate market-by-market integrations. The product is currently live in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam, with further international expansion planned throughout 2026.
Visa Direct, the company's real-time money movement platform, is being integrated into banking, fintech, and business platforms to allow small business owners to send payouts to staff, contractors, or drivers, issue refunds or incentives, and move funds across borders to eligible cards, bank accounts, or digital wallets.
Addressing demand for consolidated payment tools
Visa said the three products are intended to work together to give small businesses a single set of tools for accepting and sending payments. According to its SMB report, 56% of surveyed businesses said they wanted a single platform for financial management, a preference the company said informed the design of the combined offering.
