Visa has signed a partnership with Fintech District - an international community of reference for the Italian fintech scene -, with the aim of contributing to the evolution of the fintech ecosystem in Italy and fostering innovation and developing the next generation of payment solutions.

From its foundation in the 1950s, Visa has always been on the frontier of innovation thanks to an open network that connects 14,900 financial institutions and fintech in over 200 countries and over 80 million points of sale. Behind these numbers, a community of global experts in Artificial Intelligence, digital, cryptocurrencies, economics, financial services and consumer behavior, a community committed to finding the best technologies of the future at the highest level of security.

“The payments landscape is constantly evolving and, when it comes to innovation, fintechs are always at the forefront - says Eva Ruiz, Head of Fintech Southern Europe at Visa -. Visa has long been active in the fintech landscape with a variety of programs that support their growth and with an “open” approach to our network that allows them to take advantage of Visa’s global scale, technologies and security performance. The partnership with Fintech District will allow us to further expand our network in Italy, giving us the opportunity to collaborate with numerous leading companies in the Italian fintech scene and to do our part to contribute to the growth of the sector".

“There are over 250 fintech companies in our community and some of these have distinguished themselves in the world of payments in recent years by proposing new models that have literally revolutionized the market. We are certain that direct dialogue with a player like Visa will give a further boost to the sector for the creation of solutions capable of satisfying the increasingly evolved expectations of consumers. Our goal is to encourage dialogue for the creation of Open Innovation projects, the collaboration between fintech and incumbent is in fact confirmed as the key to the evolution of financial services - comments Clelia Tosi, Head of Fintech District.

Visa to support the fintech ecosystem

Among the initiatives, we can mention the Fintech Fast Track program, which has so far helped around a hundred European fintechs to access the payment system as direct participants, allowing them to provide their customers with better products and services, including a set of new payment solutions. Another important initiative is the Fintech Partner Connect, a program that provides financial institutions and merchants with a suite of advanced features, combining Visa expertise and solutions with those of carefully selected fintech partners.

On the sustainability front, for example, Visa collaborates with ecolytiq, its first fintech partner in this area, whose innovative Sustainability-as-a-Service solution analyzes payment data in real time to integrate each transaction with individual calculation of the environmental footprint, for example in relation to CO2, and suggests actions to offset it.

Among the latest entries in the Fintech Partner Connect is Switcho, a member of the Fintech District community, who developed the homonymous app to help its users, including SMEs and professionals, analyze recurring expenses, such as electricity, gas, internet, telephone and insurance, helping them to save.

“The offer of financial services is no longer reserved only to regulated entities and this is possible thanks to Banking as a Service, which has opened up more and more fintech opportunities, allowing entities other than financial institutions to integrate their offer with services such as a card or a bank account, but also instant payments or improved loan proposals thanks to Open Banking” , adds Eva Ruiz. “We work in all vertical sectors in the fintech world, including cryptocurrencies, Buy Now Pay Later, Open Banking, B2B payments, not limiting ourselves to issuing payment credentials, but also including enabling innovative solutions in the field of acceptance”.