Nium, a fast-growing digital cross-border payments platform, is enabling users to make real-time money transfers to Visa debit cardholders across Southeast Asia powered by Visa’s real-time push payments solution – Visa Direct.
Nium Pte. Ltd. (formerly known as InstaReM Pte. Ltd.) is the first fintech-based money transfer service provider in Southeast Asia to support instant money transfers into recipients’ bank accounts through their 16-digit Visa debit card numbers. Now live in Singapore, this solution is designed for both peer-to-peer and business-to-business transfers. In the first phase, remittances can be made to various Southeast Asia countries which include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of Nium said: “At Nium, we understand that individuals’ and businesses’ need to receive money quickly, especially in markets where there are no instant payment solutions like FAST or IMPS. The partnership using Visa’s push payment solution and secure network will allow our consumers to transfer money in a faster, convenient and more secure way.”
According to a recent Visa survey, more than one in three respondents in Singapore make international money transfers at least once a year. The survey findings also indicated that close to half (49 percent) of the respondents expect their funds to be successfully transferred in less than a day, indicating the need for an efficient cross-border money transfer solution.
Kunal Chatterjee, Visa Country Manager for Singapore and Brunei said: “Nium is the first Fintech partner from Visa’s Fintech Fast Track programme to deliver real-time remittance using our push payment solution Visa Direct. From our survey findings, more than half of respondents usually send international money transfers to either their personal or loved ones’ bank accounts and one of the most important factors they look at is for money to be transferred in real-time. Given that our domestic transfer solutions are already real-time using the FAST infrastructure, it is important to provide consumers the same speed and efficiency for cross border international transfers. We are pleased to work with Nium to leverage Visa’s global payments network to bring this seamless and secure payment experience to consumers in this region.”
Nium is a member of Visa’s Fintech Fast Track programme. This programme makes it quicker and easier for fintech partners to build and deliver new commerce experiences on Visa’s payments network.