Visa has entered into a strategic partnership with Aquanow to introduce stablecoin settlement capabilities across the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region.
Through the integration of Visa’s global payments infrastructure with Aquanow’s digital asset platform, banks, issuers and acquirers within the Visa network will be able to settle transactions using approved stablecoins. According to the announcement, this innovation is intended to reduce costs, lower operational friction and significantly speed up settlement times.
Godfrey Sullivan, head of product and solutions for CEMEA at Visa, said.
“Our partnership with Aquanow is another key step in modernizing the back-end rails of payments, reducing reliance on traditional systems with multiple intermediaries, and preparing institutions for the future of money movement,”
Aquanow CEO Phil Sham added:
“Together, Visa and Aquanow are unlocking new ways for institutions to participate in the digital economy, leveraging stablecoin technology to settle with the speed and transparency of the internet.”
This expansion aligns with Visa’s broader strategy to support additional stablecoins and blockchains on its settlement platform. Earlier this year, the company highlighted that its crypto and treasury infrastructure already enables settlement in more than 25 fiat currencies worldwide.
“Visa is building a multicoin and multichain foundation to help meet the needs of our partners worldwide,” Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth products and strategic partnerships at Visa, said. “We believe that when stablecoins are trusted, scalable and interoperable, they can fundamentally transform how money moves around the world.”
Visa’s ongoing investments and bets on stablecoins were among the bigger themes of Visa’s third quarter earnings call, PYMNTS reported at the time.
“Consumers and businesses are using stablecoins to save money in U.S. dollars, but they also want to spend that money, and there’s no better way to do that than with a Visa crypto card,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said. “We are piloting and partnering with stablecoin companies – as we build out our stablecoin settlement stack we are working to streamline treasury operations, improve liquidity management and enable quick and more cost-effective cross-border strategies.”
