• Financial inclusion makes life better

    Everyone, across the world, should have equal access to financial services and financial inclusion is the way to make that happen.

Empowering people and economies

Visa envisions a world where all individuals and businesses are able to use secure, convenient and affordable payment and other financial services to meet everyday needs and long-term goals. We are proud of our history of contributing to the growth of worldwide financial networks, implementing financial inclusion initiatives, providing free, award-winning financial literacy programs and using our time, talent and assets to strengthen local communities.

According to the 2017 World Bank Findex Study, an estimated 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked, and women are less likely than men to have a bank account1. To be one of these people is to face financial barriers that make life risky, expensive and inefficient. Financial Inclusion can help put people on a path out of poverty, create productive empowered citizens, foster business opportunities and fuel economic growth.

Digital payments are an “on ramp” to financial inclusion — very often, they are the first formal financial product a person uses. Visa has spent the last 60 years connecting hundreds of millions of people and organizations to a global system that enables fast, safe and reliable financial transactions. With our reach, insights and technical capacity, Visa is well positioned to advance financial inclusion.

1World Bank Global Findex Database

Powering financial inclusion

Around the world, 1.7 billion people remain excluded from the formal financial system1 and from the tools and services that help them smooth cash flow, save for life goals and manage unexpected events. Visa has significant opportunity to advance financial inclusion, improve the lives of missions of people and strengthen economies around the world. In 2015, Visa pledged support for the World Bank’s goal of achieving Universal Financial Access by 2020. Visa met its commitment to bring another 500 million people into the formal financial system ahead of schedule, of which 54 percent are women and around one third are rural or lower income account holders.

Empowering micro and small businesses

Visa works to help drive inclusive economic growth and improve the livelihoods of millions, by focusing our attention on the needs and challenges of micro and small business owners. Small businesses are the backbone of local economies around the world. According to the World Bank, SMEs account for 90% of businesses worldwide and more than 50% of employment2. Through our research and insights over the last 5 years, we know small business owners face a number of challenges including:

  • Access to business, financial and digital skills to help them run their businesses more efficiently
  • Connections to business networks, peers, supply chains and others that can help them learn and share best practices and improve their abilities to access new markets and customers
  • Options for affordable and appropriate financial services including accounts, savings, capital and insurance
  • Need for more small business friendly regulatory environment and business ecosystem

Read a full report on our studies with small businesses

2World Bank SME Finance

Financial literacy

Visa helps empower people to better manage their money and improve their quality of life through our award-winning Practical Money Skills tools. These tools provide parents, teachers, students and consumers with free financial literacy tools and resources for every stage of their lives.

In 2019, we developed Practical Business Skills to provide educational resources and interactive tools to help small business owners start, manage and grow their companies. We plan to scale these programs globally through clients, non-profits and government partners.

Partnering for inclusion

To empower people and economies requires collective action. Visa partners with financial institutions and fintechs, governments and international development organizations, non-profit organizations, impact investors and others to reach underserved communities. Some examples include:

Financial institution and fintech partnerships

Working with financial institutions and fintech partners, Visa is finding innovative solutions for consumers and small businesses to pay and be paid, across various regions that have notably high percentages of unbanked populations.

  • Branch, the most downloaded finance app in Africa, uses alternative data from borrower smartphones to provide fast and convenient business loans. In April 2019, Visa and Branch announced a partnership that will offer virtual Visa prepaid debit cards to over 2 million unbanked customers, allowing them to access credit at any physical ATM.
  • In Southeast Asia, we partnered with and invested in GoJek, Southeast Asia’s mobile on-demand service and payments platform. The partnership will spur innovative payment solutions for digital-first consumers and unbanked and underserved population. 
  • In Mexico, the Visa-branded OXXO Saldazo account is the first formal account for 42% of its users. Since the introduction in 2013 more than 11 million people have opened an account.
  • Though the volume of venture funding continues to grow globally, investors often find significantly less data available about fintechs targeting underserved consumers and businesses. To help address the challenge, in 2019 Visa launched Inclusive Fintech 50 in partnership with the World Bank Group, MetLife Foundation, Accion International and MIX. This global initiative, which attracted 400 fintechs from 50 countries, spotlights 50 fintechs that index high on commitment to and performance in reaching the underserved.

Government programs

Governments are vital partners for advancing financial inclusion. They set national priorities and policies and directly reach large numbers of citizens and businesses through wages, social benefits disbursements as well as payments. Visa is proud to partner with a number of governments to support the disbursement of social benefits. A few examples include:

  • 2.3M beneficiaries of the Dominican Republic’s Social Subsidies Payment System receive multiple subsidies digitally using Visa prepaid cards.
  • In Egypt, the government is digitizing a number for disbursements from wages to social welfare and pensions on more than 3 million cards.
  • Visa is working with government sponsors in China to reach 10 million underserved people by 2020 through research, best practices, training and product innovation, including through a “Financial Inclusion Demonstration Zone” in three Northeast provinces.

Advocacy and technical assistance

Visa actively participates in efforts to shape dialogue and policies affecting consumers and small businesses with the objective of helping to create more inclusive ecosystems.

  • Alliance for Financial Inclusion: Led by central banks, financial regulatory institutions and other partners in more than 90 countries, the AFI Network works to accelerate financial inclusion and to make services more available to the world’s 2 billion unbanked people. Visa provides training and shares payment systems, technical and policy insights with this global network of regulators, supervisors and policy makers from emerging markets.
  • Better Than Cash Alliance: Visa is a founding supporter of this partnership of governments, companies, and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to digital payments in order to help reduce poverty and drive inclusive growth.
  • Universal Postal Union: Visa is supporting efforts by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) to advance financial inclusion through their new Financial Inclusion Technical Assistance Facility. UPU provides up to 20 Posts with expert advice and assistance to develop digital financial products and services, and improve capabilities. The Facility researches new ways to bring individuals and small businesses into the financial system, and champion more postal action on inclusive digital financial services.

Non-profit

Visa provides funding to leading non-profits to develop programs and share industry insights aimed at finding innovative ways to reach people who are excluded from the financial ecosystem. Some examples are:

  • Filene Research Institute: We are learning from credit unions and community banks in the United States with largely minority customer bases about successful, local products that are closing the inclusion gap as part of a multiyear partnership with the Filene Research Institute. The “Product Incubator” program piloted five products at nearly 30 community financial institutions, with the goal of refining and then replicating them across the United States.
  • Women’s World Banking: To mark its inception, the Visa Foundation made its first financial commitment to Women’s World Banking – a five-year initiative of up to $20 million grant aimed at supporting millions of women-led micro and small businesses.
  • India: Visa and TechnoServe, a global nonprofit, are working together to improve the livelihoods of female farmers by increasing their participation in agricultural value chains while improving agronomy and business skills. As a result of the pilot, women are transforming their roles at home, in businesses and in farming cooperatives by assuming leadership roles. Over 18 months, farming cooperatives increased revenue by 313 percent, farmer revenue increased by 30 percent, female board members in cooperatives increased by 167 percent and female shareholders by more than eight times.
  • Mexico: Visa is collaborating with Fundes, a nonprofit in Latin America, to develop and test Enko, a capacity-building program, to help micro and small business owners improve their business management skills. In 2019 more than 10,000 small business owners have registered on the training platform free of charge. The training platform boosts skills across 32 modules with subjects including marketing, management, finance and retirement planning.