Visa today announced new capabilities across Visa Accept and Visa Direct that are designed to expand how smartphones can accept and send digital payments. The updates are intended to make it easier for small businesses in emerging markets from street vendors to growing online merchants to manage payments using tools they already rely on.
“Every tap, scan and swipe is now a defining moment in the customer relationship, and small businesses can’t afford for payments to get in the way,” said Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa. He added, “We see a future where a single smartphone is all a seller needs to accept any way customers want to pay, gain powerful insights and confidently run their business, so they can spend less time on payment friction and more time creating the experiences that keep customers coming back.”
As more commerce moves to smartphones, small businesses need simple ways to accept the payments customers use from cards and digital wallets. Visa is helping turn the smartphone into a hub for SMB commerce, combining acceptance, payouts, and customer interactions in one device. The need is clear: Visa’s Global SMB Macro Trends Report found that 99% of surveyed SMBs use at least one digital finance tool, and 85% say at least one has helped their business. With ~530 million of the world’s 1.3 billion unbanked adults already using smartphones, the opportunity to expand digital access is significant.
Visa Accept: Your phone is your card terminal
Visa Accept turns a smartphone into a card terminal, allowing a micro seller to accept card payments through their Visa debit or prepaid account, with no extra hardware needed. Buyers can tap to pay or pay by link, and funds can reach the seller’s account in near real-time*, with the security, reliability and dispute protections expected from Visa card payments. For SMBs managing tight cash flow, speed matters: Visa’s Global SMB Macro Trends Report found that 1 in 5 surveyed SMBs face cash-flow gaps daily or monthly, while nearly 28% reported issues using or applying for credit or borrowing tools in the last 12 months.
• Sellers can accept card payments using their smartphone and banking app, with faster access to funds.
• Issuers can enable eligible cardholders to accept payments directly using their banking apps, helping deepen small-business engagement.
• Buyers get the same Visa protections whether they are paying a street vendor or a large retailer.
Visa Accept is available in more than 25 countries and is live with banking partners including HNB in Sri Lanka, Banco Agromercantil de Guatemala, SACOMBANK and VPBank in Vietnam.
Co-op Bank in Kenya, as well as Access Bank, Omni Bank, and Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) in Ghana, are set to launch in the coming weeks. By 2027, Visa expects Visa Accept to be available to millions of merchants worldwide.
Visa Direct: Payouts from the same phone
Visa is also using smartphones to make it easier for small businesses to pay others through Visa Direct, its real-time* money movement platform for payouts. With Visa Direct embedded in banking, fintech, and business platforms, an SMB owner can use their phone to send fast payouts to staff, contractors or drivers, issue customer refunds or incentives, and move funds across borders* to eligible cards, bank accounts or digital wallets using the same simple experience they rely on to get paid.
