The payments process can often be arduous and infuriating when unforeseen complications arise. Looking to ensure a checkout experience is as seamless as possible, Skipify, the checkout fintech specialist, has partnered with Visa through the Visa Digital Commerce programme to simplify and accelerate the payment process. 

By combining Visa’s extensive digital payments expertise with Skipify’s digital wallet, Skipify is poised to deliver convenience and security to consumers at checkout. In the early phases of the partnership, Skipify customers in a growing list of global markets will be able to link Visa Click to Pay cards with their Skipify Connected Wallet.

Skipify’s digital wallet is embedded by merchants to help ease the challenges of checkout commonly experienced by shoppers and increase the rate of conversion. Once enabled, the direct connection means that Skipify’s identity-powered wallet will be able to recognise participating Visa Click to Pay cardholders on a merchant’s website, surfacing available cards more seamlessly.

The integration utilises advanced Visa network tokenisation technology to help minimise the risk of fraud and provide a more secure payment environment, helping to allow merchants to offer a more frictionless checkout experience without increasing exposure to fraud risk.

Advancing the future of commerce

The participation also allows Skipify to significantly expand its reach and offer its innovative payment solutions to a broader audience than ever before.

“We’re empowering merchants with an unparalleled checkout experience,” said Ryth Martin, founder and CEO of Skipify. “Merchants can authorise more shoppers automatically, drive revenue, and ultimately earn more shopper lifetime value. We are proud to deliver this level of impact with Visa by our side.”

Additionally, Skipify’s partnership with Visa reinforces a commitment to advancing the future of commerce through innovation and collaboration.

“We’re empowering businesses with convenient and secure ways to accept payments, giving them the opportunity to enrich consumer experiences and get even closer to their shoppers,” said Mark Nelsen, SVP, regional product and innovation at Visa. “Skipify has been an incredible partner because of their dedication to our merchants and cardholders. We’re delighted to drive this next wave of innovation in payments with them.”

Earlier this week, payment giants Visa and Mastercard agreed to lower fees charged to merchants for credit card transactions in the US, following a lawsuit spanning almost two decades.

In a move that could collectively save merchants as much as $30billion, Visa and Mastercard have agreed to reduce so-called ‘interchange’ fees by 0.04 percentage points for a minimum of three years, and to cap them at the same level seen at the end of 2023 for five years – subject to approval by the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Interchange rates, set by the two payment giants, generally sit between two to four per cent of each transaction total. According to Rob Beard, chief legal officer and head of global policy at Mastercard, the agreement delivers “certainty and value to business owners, including flexibility in how they manage acceptance of card programmes”.

Currently, merchants in the US can add surcharges to transactions for consumers using American Express cards – but not on Mastercard and Visa cards. But if the settlement is approved, merchants will be able to change the rates they charge for all cards, instead of basing it on the credit card network alone.

However, the majority of interchange fees actually go to the issuer banks, to cover the card services they provide, such as customer support, fraud prevention and to cover other associated handling costs. While it remains unclear which party will take the brunt of the cut, early suggestions look as though the banks will take the biggest hit. Questions could arise over how much of an impact these cuts could have on issuing banks across the US.

In response, Kim Lawrence, president of the North America region at Visa, explained: “Importantly, we are making these concessions while also maintaining the safety, security, innovation, protections, rewards and access to credit that are so important to millions of Americans and to our economy.”

A win for merchants, but a loss for cardholders?

Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree, an online lending marketplace, explains that, while US merchants will enjoy savings, this may not be the case for their customers, who may even become privy to higher fees.

“This settlement is potentially a big deal for merchants’ bottom line, but the financial impact on their customers is unclear. There’s no guarantee that even a dime of these savings gets passed on to consumers.

“Merchants will now be more able to add surcharges to purchases made with credit cards that come with higher swipe fees. That can help them recoup the cost of accepting those cards, but it also risks alienating customers.

“These changes come with some real risk to merchants. For example, a high-end credit card may cost more for a merchant to accept, but the typical user of that high-end card might be an extremely desirable customer with a lot of spending power. This dilemma is going to lead to some very interesting conversations within these companies.

“The measures in this settlement that allow for more surcharging and greater competition could lead to swipe fee reductions well beyond just what is mandated. The ultimate impact of this settlement on credit card rewards and the industry as a whole will depend on how that all plays out.

“Banks have plenty of levers to pull and buttons to push when it comes to recouping revenue in cases such as these. It is reasonable to expect that we might see other types of bank fees rise once the settlement is finalised. Banks don’t tend to take these types of changes lying down.”

Impact on issuing banks

Brad Goodall, CEO and co-founder of Banked, a fintech powering open banking payments, explains how the settlement between Visa and Mastercard could impact issuing banks, and how fintech could resolve future issues: “Mastercard and Visa have committed to maintaining average interchange fees at least seven basis points lower than the current rates over the next five years, providing a period of stability for merchants after a US judge clears the settlement.

“The big questions are; will this introduce surcharging at point of purchase and if so what will that do to consumer experience and cost? Will this open a door for alternative payment methods?

“The deal will also negatively affect issuing banks, which will take a moderate hit to the revenue they collect amidst a tough macroeconomic climate for banks as interest rates remain stubbornly high. Issuing banks are largely responsible for ensuring fraud is monitored and kept out of the system and they use part of this interchange to fight fraud.

“It’s key that fintech steps up to provide reliable and importantly, safe alternative payment methods for both merchants and banks. One promising path for innovation is Pay by Bank, a payment method built on global open banking payments rails, vastly reducing fees and providing near-instant settlement, whilst shoring up revenue for issuing banks.

“The collaboration between banks and fintechs to innovate on account-to-account rails is paramount. This partnership provides a unique opportunity, particularly as issuing banks face mounting pressures from diminishing interchange fees. This pressure incentivises them to envision a future where they can chart their own course towards a new network model. By harnessing core payment services and fraud tools, they can create a novel, real-time payment method that benefits merchants and consumers.”

Bank revenues ‘remain quite steady’ 

Not all agree with the idea that reduced interchange fees will genuinely hurt issuing banks. Dan Carter, senior director and head of global payment strategy at Redbridge Debt & Treasury Advisory, a global financial management partner to corporations, appears to suggest this, as he highlights that consumers shouldn’t fear significant additions to their bills.

“From a consumer perspective, there should be little to no major changes. Interchange rate increases have far outpaced the proposed decreases.

“As of October 2023, high-end rewards cards issued under Visa and Mastercard have reached 2.6 per cent plus $0.10 for interchange alone – up 0.1 per cent from just April 2023. Issuers may complain and may deflect with comments about fraud losses and bad debt write-offs, but their revenues remain quite steady.

“While surcharging, allowable since 2013, is more prevalent post-COVID, merchants who accept American Express are still bound by the terms of their agreements.

“What may be allowed under Visa and Mastercard may be prohibited under American Express, a network known for aggressively pursuing ‘honour all’ and anti-discrimination practices.”

Looking to the future of payments

Kjeld Herreman, head of strategy advisory at RedCompass Labs, a fintech consultant and accelerator, also explains how, even if the settlement comes into play, merchants worldwide could still benefit from other payment solutions; even those based across Europe, where interchange fees sit at around 0.3 to 0.4 per cent.

“Every card transaction that is made costs businesses money, and they usually must wait two to three days after taking payment for any money to reach their account. When it arrives, they’ve lost a chunk to interchange fees. Money that could be used to pay staff, suppliers, rent, and bills goes to the payment processor. Not only is the business worse off in real terms, but waiting for the money to arrive can create pressure with suppliers and staff who need to be paid.

“P2B real-time payments are a solution for merchants everywhere who are tired of paying interchange fees and waiting days for their money to arrive. The faster the payment, the faster the business is paid, the faster it can reinvest, and the faster it grows.

“The EU is attempting to tackle this issue to reduce the power of large foreign businesses. The European Payments Initiative is building a card-like scheme on top of real-time payment rails, as well as adapting interchange and chargeback processes. It is also mandating that all banks must be ready to send and receive real-time payments by the end of 2025, levelling the playing field between PSPs and card networks.”

Visa has introduced three new AI-powered risk and fraud prevention solutions to enhance security in digital payments.

The new products, integrated into the end-to-end Visa Protect suite, aim to diminish fraud across immediate account-to-account and card not present (CNP) payments, as well as transactions both on and off Visa’s network.

Visa Protect is part of a broad suite of Visa value-added services, which has expanded to include nearly 200 products across five popular categories: acceptance, advisory, issuing, open banking, and protect.

Antony Cahill, global head of value-added services at Visa, said: “Digital payments go far beyond completing a sale – we are entering an era of modern commerce where winners move fast, AI is essential, experiences are flexible and security is native.

“Businesses are looking for partners that can enable their ambitions to compete and win and we’re proud to be the trusted partner helping a growing number of clients do exactly that in today’s highly competitive environment.”

Visa says security and fraud prevention are fundamental aspects of its operations.

Security and fraud prevention are fundamental to Visa. In 2023, Visa successfully thwarted $40billion in fraudulent activities, marking a significant increase from the preceding year.

Its new solutions include:

• Visa Deep Authorisation (VDA): This solution is tailored to help issuers mitigate the challenges they face due to the rising complexity of digital fraud. Utilising deep learning AI risk models and vast amounts of contextual data, VDA offers a new transaction risk scoring mechanism specifically optimised for card not present (CNP) payments.
• Expansion of Visa Advanced Authorisation (VAA) and Visa Risk Manager (VRM) for non-Visa card payments: Visa’s AI-driven fraud risk management solutions are now agnostic to network schemes. This expansion enables issuers to streamline their fraud detection operations, resulting in strengthened fraud protections and reduced operational costs.
• Real-time, account-to-account payment protection: a fraud prevention solution designed specifically for immediate payments, including peer-to-peer (P2P) digital wallets, account-to-account transactions, and central banks’ instant payment systems. Powered by advanced deep learning AI detection models, this service provides real-time risk scoring, empowering financial institutions to proactively block fraudulent transactions before they occur.

Each product will be available to clients starting in the first half of 2024, with varied launch dates by product and market.

“Real-time, digital payments are nearly ubiquitous, creating a need for security solutions that are transformative and adaptive to the real-world,” James Mirfin, SVP, global head of risk and identity solutions, Visa, also added: “As digital fraud grows in volume and sophistication, Visa is keeping pace by bolstering our powerful suite of risk and fraud solutions through our unmatched technology innovation and AI expertise, and expanding their utility beyond the Visa network.”

Visa, the digital payments leader, has partnered with UAE-based Merex Investment, and PayMate, a B2B payments solution, to digitise rental collections through Visa’s Business Payments Solution Provider (BPSP) solution provided by PayMate.

Launched in 2020, the Visa BPSP solution enables non-card-accepting suppliers to receive payments made on card rails into their bank account, by integrating with PayMate’s platform.

By adopting this solution, Merex Investment can now collect rental receivables into its bank account through commercial card payments made by its tenants in the UAE. This move drives efficiency in collection processes for its retail destinations and also eliminates the need for manual reconciliation through traditional collection methods.

Shahram Shamsaee, CEO of Merex Investment, commented: “By leveraging Visa’s BPSP solution, we digitise payments, enhance efficiency, and drive transparency.

“This strategic alliance reflects our commitment to tenant experience and growth, empowering us with valuable insights for informed decision-making and improved business planning. With industry-leading solutions from Visa and PayMate, we look forward to delivering exceptional services to our valued tenants.”

This partnership demonstrates Merex Investment’s commitment to enhancing their tenants’ experience by streamlining collection processes, reducing manual intervention and enabling services from a specialist in the field, that are cost-effective, reliable, as well as highly secure.

Modernising ‘real estate and rental collections’

Salima Gutieva, VP and UAE country manager at Visa, also said: “At Visa, our goal is to digitise and simplify B2B payments acceptance to ensure more seamless, quick and secure money movement. We firmly believe that this collaboration will make a significant contribution to the ongoing digitisation efforts within the emirate’s real estate sector, as part of Dubai Land Department’s efforts to modernise real estate and rental collections.”

Rakesh Khanna, chief commercial officer at PayMate, also commented: “This will empower Merex Investment and its retail destinations to digitise their rent payments, eliminate friction by removing manual processes and provide end-to-end reconciliation. This will set a benchmark and potentially pave the ‘new way’ to collect rent payments in the region resonating with Smart Dubai’s vision of digitisation.”

With the current challenges in card acceptance for B2B Payments, Visa’s BPSP solution along with PayMate, aims to drive working capital benefits and transparent reconciliation through secure channels, providing key insights for strategic decision-making, cash flow forecasting and business planning.

Payments giant Visa has entered a seven-year agreement with Western Union, the money transfer firm, to help Western Union customers send money to their family and friends’ eligible Visa cards and bank accounts in 40 countries across five regions.

Thanks to the collaboration, Western Union customers will also be able to receive Visa prepaid cards in select markets offering an innovative solution that bridges the physical and digital world.

Countries covered by the partnership include the US, Canada, UK, Turkey, Romania, Poland, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Egypt, Kenya and Uganda.

The agreement encompasses card issuance, Western Union’s integration with Visa Direct, and value-added services delivery including risk products.

Western Union and Visa are also developing disbursement programs for humanitarian organisations and governments to support the delivery of critical funds during a disaster. The programmes intend to support emergency and humanitarian payouts, cross-border pension payouts, and domestic benefits and disbursement payouts.

Chris Newkirk, global head of commercial and money movement solutions at Visa, commented on the need for the partnership: “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.

“Visa’s global scale and Western Union’s digital capabilities are revolutionizing how customers send funds around the world. We are proud to offer more people fast and efficient solutions for cross-border payments.”

Sam Jawad, head of ecosystem at Western Union, also discussed the partnership: “Aspiring populations around the world rely on Western Union to provide them with innovative and accessible financial services that offer flexibility, value and trust. By strengthening our strategic collaboration with Visa, together we will deliver impactful products and services that can help empower our customers to build a life of opportunity for themselves and their loved ones.”

The agreement builds on Western Union’s existing integrations with Visa Direct, which enabled US and European customers to send and receive funds directly to eligible Visa cardholders overseas.

Checkbook, an all-in-one payments platform, is partnering with Visa to expedite disbursements to businesses, institutions, and individuals across millions of endpoints around the country.

By joining forces and implementing Visa Direct, Checkbook hopes to strengthen its relationship with Visa, and expand the solutions it offers to businesses looking to disburse fast and seamless payments to individuals and other businesses.

The collaboration builds on Visa and Checkbook’s incremental collaboration with Checkbook having participated in the Visa FastTrack programme in 2021 and their Virtual Card programme enabled by Visa.

Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, North America head at Visa Direct, explained: “In today’s ‘always on’ world, businesses and consumers demand quick and convenient access to cash flow – whether paying insurance claims, disbursing wages, tips or rebates – speed and efficiency have become the name of the game.

“We’re proud to collaborate with companies like Checkbook that are helping to streamline global money movement and disburse funds quickly and securely with Visa Direct.”

Visa Direct provides a single point of access and reach to over eight billion endpoints, helping transform global money movement by facilitating the delivery of funds to three billion eligible cards, over three billion bank accounts and over 2.5 billion wallets around the world. In Visa’s FY23 alone, Visa Direct surpassed 7.5 billion transactions. Checkbook customers are also part of that, which helps save them time and resources.

Optimising customer offerings

PJ Gupta, CEO and founder of Checkbook, also commented on the partnership: “Our goal at Checkbook has always been to offer our customers a comprehensive suite of modern payment options with a single API.

“By offering real-time payments through Visa Direct, we are enhancing our customers’ ability to send and receive fast payments seamlessly.”

Fast payments optimise how businesses send money to their customers and other businesses. Examples include paying insurance claims, vendors and contractors, wages, tips and rebates. However, most organisations encounter unexpected complications and overhead in facilitating these payments.

With Checkbook’s payments platform, creating and sending real-time payments directly to customers’ bank accounts through eligible cards is done via one simple API call. Checkbook also offers a broad feature set that helps make managing the payment lifecycle painless.

Businesses can track payment status and monitor account activity from their dashboard or via Checkbook’s robust API. All these pieces contribute to the success of Checkbook’s product – a payment infrastructure tailored to meet customers’ payment needs when and how they need it.

Over 50 per cent of European small businesses (SMBs) struggle to gain external finance according to Statista; consequently, Froda, the Swedish fintech is expanding its partnership with Visa to scale embedded SMB lending across Europe.

The Froda Visa partnership will enable other fintechs, banks and neobanks to access Froda’s card-based embedded lending product to offer business loans to their customers. Services like these are crucial in the face of economic headwinds, as access to finance becomes even more challenging.

Together, the firms will focus on the adoption of a card-based embedded lending solution. Card-based lending operates similarly to a traditional business loan for SMBs, but offers increased speed and convenience. It is widely accessible across markets, thanks to the extensive global network of Visa’s card infrastructure. The product creates opportunities for other fintechs and banks to scale their businesses and expand their offerings.

Since the product was launched in June, card-based embedded lending is now available in Denmark via Lunar and in Germany via Kontist, a part of Ageras Group. The plan for the partnership is to embark on an ambitious expansion across Europe. The focus includes identifying new markets and partners. This expansion aligns with the companies’ commitment to providing accessible and innovative financial solutions to SMBs across Europe.

Expanding to new markets

“The extended partnership marks an important step in evolving the SMB landscape in Europe. Our joint efforts to promote the card-based embedded lending solution underline our commitment to fostering innovation for our clients and partners, so that they in turn can support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises,” says Philip Konopik, regional managing director Nordics and Baltics at Visa.

“This is a milestone for us and for SMBs across Europe. We are excited about what we have achieved so far and are confident that our innovative approach to SMB lending will continue to make a positive impact. The expansion plans across Europe demonstrate our dedication to reaching more SMBs and driving economic empowerment through accessible financing solutions,” says Olle Lundin, CEO and co-founder of Froda.

“Since the product´s launch in June, we have successfully gone live with two partners in two markets and have seen a great interest within the industry. We look forward to expanding the product to additional markets, providing more entrepreneurs with access to finance,” says Stella Snickare, VP Froda Embedded.

Payments are arguably the face of fintech. When you think about financial technology, it is easy to think about solutions which are making payments faster, easier and more accessible.

Having explored the evolution of cross-border payments to date, we now turn our attention to the biggest barriers that may be limiting and slowing the growth of the space. To find out more, we reached out to the experts:

Fragmentation and de-risking

Aleks Stefanovski, VP for strategy and business operations at payments giant Visa, breaks down his view of the biggest barriers impacting the growth of cross-border payments: “Fragmented legal and regulatory standards make cross-border payments slower, more expensive, and more complex to process. Each jurisdiction has its own requirements, resulting in barriers to entry for competition, as well as significant operational complexity and friction for businesses.

“Another barrier is de-risking by correspondent banks. Most cross-border payments are processed on infrastructure provided by correspondent banks. This means banks’ risk appetites have a significant impact on how much cross-border payments cost and how quickly they can be processed.

“Over the past decade, the risk appetite at correspondent banks has declined. There are lots of factors at play here. One is an increase in the number of nation-states on sanctions lists. Another is the prevalence of outdated, legacy IT systems across the financial world that make it harder for banks to sift out financial crime from legal transactions – and therefore the banks need to put broader, often blanket bans in place.

“This isn’t necessarily the fault of any one bank – individually they’re obliged to mitigate risk to their business, their customers and their shareholders, and that’s right – but it does mean today it’s virtually impossible to access a USD account in Pakistan, for instance.

“The result is financial inclusion across many parts of the world, often poorer nations, is seriously undermined. Whoever solves it will have a profoundly positive impact on society.”

Legacy systems, regulation and cost

Here, Daniel Cohen, CEO of PayU GPO, also breaks down three major factors limiting evolution in the space:

“Reliance on legacy systems – Global business success often hinges on the ability to scale operations efficiently and effectively with their payment processing needs. A payments system’s inability to scale alongside its customers could be down to reliance on legacy systems, which can often be slow and prone to error. The absence of interoperability between different systems can create additional barriers and inefficiencies, affecting the growth of payments.

“A broad regulatory spectrum – An array of domestic regulations to comply with, in addition to global compliance and security protocols, can complicate payment transactions. Take for example Argentina where inflation and local regulation are weighing heavily on the ability to exit funds from the country. As financial and data regulations are continually evolving and differ around the world, this can be challenging to navigate. Collaboration between fintechs and governments will be essential to develop a fintech ecosystem fit to cater to cross-border needs.

“Cost of transactions – Cross-border transactions often involve several intermediaries, which can significantly increase the cost of transaction fees. In tandem, businesses are contending with fluctuating foreign exchange rates which greatly impact the final value of a transaction. This represents a huge financial burden and may deter businesses from offering this type of payment.”

Standardisation and regulation

Sebastian Davies, vice president of research at Aquanow, also puts varying regulations across different regions down as one of the most significant barriers to international payments: “Diverse and complex regulatory environments across different countries complicate cross-border capital movement.

“The lack of standardisation in payment infrastructures and operating practices between countries adds to the complexity.

“Security concerns, including data privacy, fraud, and cyber threats, can limit the adoption of digital payment solutions. Additionally, in some regions, limited access to banking services can restrict the ability to engage in cross-border transactions. Often this all results in high costs and fees, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, which can be prohibitive.”

Exchange rate volatility

Volatile exchange rates are putting many consumers off of embracing cross-border payments, according to Jai Bifulco, chief commercial officer at Kinesis: “First of all, exchange rate volatility is a constant source of uncertainty and an area of cost considerations, which can decrease how attractive international transactions are to consumers.

“The existing legacy infrastructure and archaic technological standards used by financial institutions can often maintain these inefficiencies, with higher fees and slower processing times that extend cross-border payments.

“A lack of transparency in transaction tracking and settlement erodes overall market confidence, which can be further exacerbated by regulatory complexities. The varying compliance requirements, including lengthy approval processes and minimal visibility of payments across jurisdictions, can create lengthy operational hurdles for businesses.

“Concerns related to cybersecurity and the risk of interception, which is developing due to the capabilities of sophisticated cybercrime groups, and concerns over the theft and misuse of data privacy create apprehensions among businesses and consumers, stifling the adoption of these payment methods.”

A whole host of barriers

Finally, Mohan Murali, president and CEO of Axletree Solutions, explains a full range of barriers: “Growing geopolitical instability, increasing regulatory compliance, fragmented infrastructure, slow or insufficient innovation, and increasing cybersecurity threats inhibit the growth of cross-border payments.

“Sanctions and other measures undertaken during times of conflict disrupt financial flow, creating uncertainty for businesses, directly impacting confidence in cross-border payments. In addition, conflicts result in volatility in exchange rates, making it more expensive to send or receive money across borders.

“Offering transparency and fairness in regulations helps protect consumers from fraud and hidden fees. For example, regulations in foreign exchange transparency help prevent businesses from exploiting consumers unaware of exchange rates. Yet, a patchwork of regulations across countries adds complexity, delays and inefficiencies in processing cross-border payments, directly impacting cost.

“The reliance on numerous intermediaries, correspondent banks result in slower transaction speeds, increased cost, growing risk of errors, and limited transparency for cross-border payments, when compared to domestic transactions. Efforts are on to develop common standards and platforms for cross-border payments, like the G20 roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments and implementation of ISO20022 standard.

“Technologies like real time payments and blockchain have the potential to bypass intermediaries and create more direct and efficient payment rails, Yet, lower adoption rates for such technologies, especially by traditional financial institutions running legacy systems, are stifling growth.

“As cross-border payment systems increasingly become digital and interconnected they are getting more vulnerable to cybercrime. Through targeted phishing emails, malware injections, exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, man-in-the-middle attacks, and more, organised cybercrime syndicates, operating across borders, with advanced tools and techniques, target high-value transactions, executing complex attacks, impacting financial losses, reputational damage, and economic disruption.”

Emirates Skywards, a loyalty programme of Emirates and flydubai, is partnering with Visa, the digital payments giant, to enable it to work on enhancing personalisation and data-driven decision-making. 

Following the partnership with Visa, Emirates Skywards hopes to work closely with co-brand issuer partners across the GCC to increase opportunities for more personalised rewards and products on co-brand card propositions.

Emirates Skywards also revealed it will work more closely with financial partners across the region, thanks to the Visa collaboration. Members will also benefit from enhanced travel opportunities through the optimised use of data, technology, and resources.

Nejib Ben Khedher, divisional senior vice president of Emirates Skywards, commented: “We’re excited to announce this landmark partnership with Visa – a strategic agreement which will unlock incremental value for our loyal members across the GCC and will tighten our collaboration with our banking partners in the region.

“This agreement is a major milestone for Emirates Skywards as it continues to lead the industry with innovative digital-first products and experiences.”

Emirates Skywards and Visa co-branded cardholders can look forward to exclusive offers including accelerating miles-earning opportunities; customised promotions; and other experiences tailored to member preferences.

Saeeda Jaffar, senior vice president and group country manager for GCC at Visa, also added: “This multi-year exclusive deal with one of the largest of its kind worldwide and the largest in scale in the region, is a testament to Visa’s global leadership in travel co-brands and a significant milestone in our journey to enhance the payment experience for travellers worldwide.

“Here in the UAE, our Global Travel Intentions study revealed that 70 per cent of outbound travellers consider digital payments integral to a secure and rewarding travel experience.

“This large-scale partnership is a step towards fulfilling that need and we are thrilled with this opportunity to work with Emirates in bringing new experiences to Visa cardholders in the UAE and GCC.”

North America Partnerships